Caroline Green
Caroline “Carrie” Sophia Green nee Avery (1890-1988) was born in London, England, the oldest child of a bricklayer. She apprenticed and worked as a shirt machinist in a Battersea laundry. She married soldier Arthur Higgins in 1913 and had her daughter a year later. Higgins died in service in 1916. She remarried in 1917 to soldier John Green (1891-1954). They emigrated to Victoria, B.C. about 1920. Caroline got a job the next day as a chambermaid and John worked as a janitor. They lived in Vancouver during the Depression. Caroline worked throughout, taking jobs as a chambermaid, housekeeper, rope maker, and shirt machinist. She was hired by Boeing in the early 1940’s making precision airplane parts. Her husband was forced to stop work due to illness in 1946. When the women were laid off at the end of the war she continued to support the family in food preparation at St. Paul’s Hospital.