Tens of thousands of people who assumed they were Canadians have had their citizenship thrown into question by a court ruling on the status of Second World War brides and their children.

Yesterday, the Federal Court of Appeal overturned the decision of a lower court that in 2006 ordered Ottawa to grant immediate citizenship to the British son of a Canadian war veteran.

This latest judgment says brides of veterans, and their children born overseas - who had been granted citizenship by a special wartime order in 1945 - lost that status if they left Canada after 1947 and did not sign a form to have their citizenship reinstated.