On January 5, 1943 Carole married Captain Thomas Wallace in London, England. He was a twenty-five year old Air Force pilot from Pasadena. Tommy had been part of the English Royal Air Force's American "Eagle Squadron". This was Carole's third marriage but sadly it would only last two years. Carole met Tommy on November 13, 1942 when she was entertaining soldiers in England. He proposed on their first date but she waited several weeks before agreeing to marry him. He could not get an engagement ring so he gave Carole his signet ring. She told reporters she was "nervous" as she got ready for the wedding at the Savoy hotel. Carole wore a cream colored satin dress designed by Hartnell, a strand of pearls, and orange blossoms in her hair. She carried a bouquet of white carnations and orchids. The wedding was almost canceled when Carole suffered an appendicitis attack in December 1942. She recovered in time for the ceremony and the doctor who removed her appendix gave her away. Hundreds of fans and photographers waited outside the church to see Carole. She had wanted to get married on January 1, her 24th birthday, but it was against British law. Kay Francis tried to convince her not to go through with the wedding. The ceremony took place at 2:00 PM at the Church of Our Lady Of Assumption on Warrick Street. Tommy was a Presbyterian but he agreed to have a Catholic ceremony. His friend Gus Daymond was his best man. Carole asked Mitzi Mayfair to be her maid of honor. Mitzi had collected ration coupons so Carole could get a nice dress and shoes.
The ceremony was performed by Father Waterkeyn and Father Harris. Carole had five weddings but this was the only time she got married in a church. After the wedding the groom said "I am probably the luckiest man in the world". Carole said "I want to have a wonderful marriage and children whom I may love and make a fuss over long after the movies are gone." She wrote about their romance in her book Four Jills In A Jeep and the wedding was recreated in the 1944 film. The large wedding cake was actually made of cardboard with a small white cake inside. There was no honeymoon because Carole went to North Africa three days after the wedding to perform for the troops. Tommy was stationed overseas during most of their marriage so they spent very little time together. Carole wrote to him every day they were apart. She carried his lighter with her and she kept six photos of him in her bedroom. They finally took a honeymoon trip to New York City in September 1943. Tommy hated Carole's Hollywood lifestyle and he wanted her to give up her career to become a housewife. Carole was disappointed that they didn't have children. When their marriage started to fall apart she attempted suicide. The couple separated in October 1944 and were divorced the following year. Carole always considered Tommy the great love of her life. In 1946 Tommy married his second wife Joanne. They moved to England and had two sons - Barry and Nicholas. Tommy served in the Air Force during the Korean war and later worked for Goodyear. Tragically in 1968 he was killed in an accidental shooting.
Here is an excerpt from an article Carole wrote titled "Don't Marry A Stranger" -
No woman ever loved a man more than I loved Tommy Wallace. And Tommy loved me, too. All my life, above all the rest, I want to remember that. I want to remember how Tommy and I sat in little English pubs just staring at each other, how hours seemed minutes - time goes so fast when you're happy - how we walked across winter fields and had tea at a little inn beside a river. Three weeks after we met, and in the same moment loved each other, Tommy and I were engaged. Less than two months later we were married. And somehow we felt safer as we walked through London's blacked-out streets and heard Nazi bombs screaming towards the earth because we had a recognized claim on each other as we held fast to each other's hands. I was lucky to have such a romantic adventure. If only I had accepted it for what it was and not insisted on turning it into marriage before I knew whether or not it belonged to marriage. For now, not even two years later, Tommy and I are going to be divorced. We both know, through a series of disillusioning experiences, that we do not have what it takes for marriage to each other. We don't have friendship. And marriage without friendship is like a house without a foundation. It cannot endure. However, while I am sorry I married Tommy, I am not sorry I loved him. I would be reluctant to have missed those two months during which Tommy and I met and loved. It was a marriage which, I believe, we would have discovered was not meant to be had we disciplined ourselves and waited. As Tommy has said so often in the last year as we tried to salvage our marriage, "It's no use. We'll never make a go of it. We're different".
