A map which Dave O'Malley created to mark the family homes for each of the more than four hundred serviceman from his small city district in Ottawa, Ontario who died in WWII. Please read on to learn their story of sacrifice...
With the Centenary for the end of the Great War, the war supposedly to end all wars, having just passed two weeks ago on November 11th, and with that same date 100 years ago chiseled in time as Remembrance Day ever more, your editor thought that the following article by my great friend Dave O’Malley at Vintage Wings of Canada was important to repeat here on our pages as well. This is a brilliant and dedicated piece of research mapping out, ever so powerfully, the price that victory in WWII demanded from families in just one small neighborhood within the Canadian Capitol. Taken as a small subset of the larger story, this deep dive on the lives cut all-too-short by war within a city square mile can easily be extrapolated to reveal the greater cost across Canada, and no doubt with similarity in the villages, towns and cities in other Allied-aligned nations across the globe, albeit with greater consequences for those states having endured the war since its very beginnings.
O’Malley has not only found the names of 392 servicemen from his neighborhood who paid the ultimate sacrifice in WWII, but even located a representative photograph for almost every man as well. But most poignantly, he also mapped out where each of their families had lived. And it is on that point that in many ways the real sacrifice was laid bare… the irreparable sense of loss that each of these people would have felt for their fallen family member; a loss that would have followed each of them for the rest of their days. Just as heart-breaking to comprehend is that this locale likely paid a similar price a generation earlier during WWI as well. Such was the way of things… here’s to never having the need to create such a map again.
Young men and woman who are killed on active service are said to have paid the “supreme sacrifice”. I guess that is true. There’s not much more that you can give than that. But I posit that the greatest sacrifice of all is borne by the families of those killed in the line of duty. Airmen, soldiers and sailors who die in battle are lionized, and rightly so, but it’s their mothers, fathers, wives and families who are conscripted to carry the burden of that sacrifice to the end of their days.
by Dave O’Malley
Mapping the Fallen
The neighbourhood I live in is called the Glebe. It’s a funky 130-year old urban community in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada— red brick Victorian homes, some stately, some working class, excellent schools as old as the neighbourhood, tall trees pleached over shady streets, open-minded and highly educated people, happy kids, diverse, desirable and timeless, close to everything, surrounded on three sides by the historic Rideau Canal. People come from all over the city, the country, even the world to walk its pathways, attend its festivals and sporting events and skate the canal. You may find a more upscale neighbourhood, a trendier one, a more affordable one, but you will never find a better one.
It is a truly perfect place to raise a family, build a business and live out a life as I have done. It is safe, historic, dynamic, walkable, serene and peaceful… but once it must have felt like the saddest place on earth. Its shady avenues ran with apprehension and despair, its busy serenity masked the constant high frequency vibration of anxiety and the low pounding of sorrow. Behind every door and every drawn curtain hid anxious families. Behind many were broken parents, heartbroken wives, memories of summers past and lost, the promises of a future destroyed, children who would never know their fathers. These were the years of the Second World War and the decades following that it took to wash it all away.
There was nothing particularly special about the Glebe that brought this plague of anguish, nothing it deserved, nothing that warranted a special attention from death. Indeed, the Glebe was not singled out at all, though it may have felt like it. Every community in Canada and across the British Commonwealth took the same punishment, felt the blows to its heart, felt its life blood seeping away. During these six long years of war, every community across the land stood and took it, blow after blow after blow. Parents stood by while their sons and daughters left the family home, left the routines that gave comfort, the futures that beckoned and began arduous journeys that would, in time, lead most to war and great risk of death.
Some would die in training, others in transit. Some would die of disease and even murder. Some would die in accidents close to home, others deep in enemy lands. Some by friendly fire, others by great malice. Many would simply disappear with no known grave, lost to the sea, a cloud covered mountain, a blinding flash, a trackless jungle. Some would die in an instant, others with prolonged fear and pain. Most would make it home again. An extraordinarily high number would not come home in one piece.
Though it was not alone in its sorrow, the Glebe was the first community in Canada to feel a blow. The first Canadian to die in the war, and in fact the first Allied servicemen who died in the war came from here. Pilot Officer Ellard Cummings, a former Glebe Collegiate Institute student, was killed just a few hours after war was declared on September 3, 1939 when the Westland Wallace he was piloting crashed into a mountain in Scotland in fog. The first Canadians to die on North American soil in the Second World War were from Ottawa, including Glebe resident Corporal David Rennie. He was lost in early September of 1939 along with another Ottawa aviator named Ted Doan, when their Northrop Delta airplane experienced an engine failure and crashed into the New Brunswick wilderness while en route to Cape Breton to join in the search for German submarines. He lived with his parents on Ella Street, just a few blocks from my home. They were the first of many, many families in the Glebe whose lives would be destroyed by the war. Their son would not be found for another 19 years.
Over the years, I have written or published many other stories about Canadian airmen during the Second World War. Several have intersected with my neighbourhood. David Rouleau, who lived just north of my home was lost in 1942 at Malta. Lew Burpee, who lived just a few blocks away was killed a year later during the near-mythical Dam Busters Raid on the Ruhr River dams. In that same one-year span, two cousins who lived right across the street from me were lost on operations—Jim Wilson and Harry Healy. Several blocks north, lived Keith “Skeets” Ogilvie, the last man out of the tunnel during the Great Escape. He narrowly escaped being murdered by the Nazis upon his capture.
Pilot Officer David Francis Gaston Rouleau. Lost in the summer of 1942 trying to get to Malta after launching from HMS Eagle during Operation STYLE. Though Rouleau did not live within the recognized boundaries of the Glebe, he lived just a few blocks north of the neighbourhood along the west bank of the Rideau Canal. It was the proximity of Rouleau’s home to mine that first inspired me to research his story, pull his service file from the archives and build a picture of his training, operational history and his final tragic day. It’s Rouleau’s death that eventually led to the stories of more than 360 others who died in the Glebe and surrounding neighbourhoods during the Second World War.
In May of 2018, on the 75th anniversary of the legendary Dam Busters Raid, I learned that one of the 19 hand-picked elite pilots from that night was Pilot Officer Lewis Johnstone Burpee, who lived in the Glebe, just four blocks from my office. I found his story in an archived page in the Ottawa Journal newspaper from May of 1943. The story included the names of his parents and the address of his family home. I came to understand that when an airman, soldier or sailor was featured in the newspapers of the day, the address of his next-of-kin was nearly always mentioned. Stories of these men were short and usually, but not always, included a photo. These stories fell into several categories—about the serviceman’s completion of training, his arrival overseas (telegramming his parents), his awards, medals and promotions, his appearance in casualty lists, reports of being missing in action, his death or capture, his release from prison after the war and eventually his arrival home. The result was thousands of stories over 5 years of the European war and beyond—and half a year of scouring the pages of the now-defunct Ottawa broadsheet daily newspaper.
All these men walked the same streets that I did and still do. I can pass their homes any day, enter their churches, visit their schools. They all went to the Mayfair, Rialto and Imperial Theatres to find out the news about the war or just to escape from it. I still go to the Mayfair to this day. They played hockey on the frozen canal like I used to do. They used the same butcher I use today. This immediacy, this connection is a very powerful thing. It brought home the loss in a very personal way.
When I wrote a story about 617 Squadron Lancaster pilot Lewis Burpee on the 75th Anniversary of the Dam Busters Raid this year, I pinned his and the homes of others I had written about on a map of the Glebe. Seeing these homes and their physical relationship to me and to each other had a very powerful effect on me. In fact, it obsessed me.
This simple map, which I built for my Dam Buster’s story six months ago demonstrates the locations of the homes of some of the heroes that grew up in my neighbourhood. These men are just the ones I have come across in my research of disparate stories. It would soon become apparent that there were several hundred others in the area covered by this map. However, in this small sampling, we have an extraordinary representation of some of the most famous and pivotal events and campaigns of the war—a Dam Buster pilot, a Battle of Britain pilot and Great Escape participant, a Spitfire pilot lost during aircraft carrier resupply of Malta, a Coastal Command Beaufighter pilot lost at sea and two men lost on Bomber Command night operations.
I began to wonder how many other stories there were in these streets and avenues. How many more had been lost? How many families were affected? What I found out left me speechless. In the age of the “infographic”, I set out to demonstrate visually what that number of fallen meant to my personal community, by mapping death’s footprints.
I commenced my search by writing to all the churches in the Glebe and surrounding areas that existed in the Second World War and were still in existence today. Following the First and Second World Wars, many churches in Ottawa dedicated large bronze plaques to commemorate those members of their parish who died in the war. I had seen several over the years. Several churches had photos of these plaques on their websites, while others wrote back to me, attaching photos of their plaques.
There were four major public high schools in downtown Ottawa in 1939—Glebe Collegiate Institute, Lisgar Collegiate Institute, Ottawa Technical High School and the High School of Commerce. Of these four, only Glebe and Lisgar still function today—two of Ottawa’s finest schools. In the lobby of Lisgar, I found a bronze plaque with the names of those former students who had died in the Second World War. On the Glebe Collegiate website, I found a list of all those Glebe students who had died. I also found an entire section of Glebe Collegiate’s website where students had researched most of the names from the plaque and had compiled short histories of each of the fallen alumni.
At the end of May, I began my quest to find and map the fallen in the Glebe. To do this, I would have to find the addresses of every young man listed on these plaques and in Casualty Lists published in the Ottawa daily broadsheet newspapers. In the case of the Glebe history project, many of these addresses were part of their research. I cross-referenced every man in every plaque in every church and school with the Canadian Virtual War Memorial site In the hopes of finding their stories, addresses and photos. I also purchased a Newspapers.com membership and began cross-referencing the dates of each man’s death. Though, for privacy reasons, you would never see this today, newspapers almost always included the address of the next of kin. If he was married, both the address of parents and wife could be mentioned. If both were within the boundaries of my map, I used the parental home. I did not map both addresses. Starting with the posted date of the serviceman’s death, I scoured every page of each issue of the Ottawa Journal moving forward until I ran into a story about each person’s loss.Five months into the search,the Ottawa Citizen became available on-line and more fallen became to light. All of the men who qualified were mentioned in one of the hundreds and hundreds of official casualty lists published in both papers. I did not differentiate the manner of their deaths, though most died on active service. A small proportion died of disease, motor accidents, train wrecks and heart attacks, but if they qualified to be on an official casualty list in the local papers and on the Canadian Virtual War Memorial, then they qualified for this map.
If the man died in Canada in training, the story usually appeared in one to two days, but if he died overseas on active service, it could be weeks before his name appeared in a story or on an official casualty list as either missing in action or killed on active service. If a man was missing in action, then his story would appear in the paper again in one of two ways. In a few months, if he was alive, a story would appear informing readers that he was a POW. If he was dead, the wait would be a bit longer, but in six to eight months, another piece would appear in the paper stating that he was, for official purposes, presumed dead. As 1944 turned into 1945, the tone of newspaper stories took a turn for the better. With the war winding down, the airman or soldier’s photo might be accompanied by short headlines like—“Safe in England”, “Liberated”, or “Returning Home”. Still, there was fighting to be done and the Glebe was not out of the woods yet. The killing continued.
As I began to collect the images, stories and addresses of young men who lived in the Glebe or who went to Glebe High School and were killed on active service during the war, I began to see that the research and time required to tell the full story was going to be massive. I began to wonder if I should just cut my losses and focus on writing another story. Then something extraordinary happened. While following the stories of former Glebe High School students, I came across this story that appeared in the Ottawa Journal in February, 1943. Zino Manford Niblock and Carl Caldwell, two boys who grew up together in what was then Ottawa’s West End, were killed on active service in the same 24-hour period—Niblock, a Handley Page Hampton wireless operator in an accident with 415 Squadron, RCAF of Coastal Command, and Caldwell, a fighter pilot killed on operations the next day. Both men were just 20-years old. Niblock lived on a street called Faraday, which I had not heard of before. The name stuck in my mind as did Niblock’s uncommon names. Later that very same night, I attended a party to celebrate the recent wedding of two dear friends of mine—Peter and Gerry. There were only 20-25 people in attendance and I found myself chatting with Peter’s trim, lovely and 80-something mother. We were talking about growing up in Ottawa and I asked her where she had lived as a child, and she said, “On Faraday Street.” Surprised by the coincidence, I explained how I was researching this story and that I had run across a story about two young friends who had died in the war and one was from Faraday Street. Her face turned wistful, and there was a look in her eyes I could not explain. She asked, “What was his name?” “Niblock” I replied. Her eyes widened a bit, maybe turned a bit melancholy and she said, “That was my brother.” I was struck almost speechless by the stunning coincidence. “I don’t remember much from the time he died,” she said, “because I was only four years old. But after the war when I was older, I remember my mother in her room, crying.” It was the mystical quality of this serendipity that fueled the next four months of research. But it was also the fact that Niblock’s mother never quite got over the death of her young son. It helped me to realize that those who died made the supreme sacrifice, but it was the families that continued to pay the terrible price for a generation or more. Image: Ottawa Journal via Newspapers.com
In the Glebe as in most urban neighbourhoods at the time, the Grim Reaper took the form of the telegram boy who had the duty to deliver both good and bad news. Mothers, looking out from their front porches, fathers from their parlours, wives from their washing, must have cringed to see the young man from the Canadian National Telegram and Cable Company pedal or drive down their street, and willed them to move on. In all cases, the next-of-kin was informed by telegram before the official casualty lists were published in the paper, but on a few occasions, happy stories (award of medals, a marriage, etc) about a serviceman appeared in the paper after the next-of-kin had been notified of his death. These must have been difficult to read for the parents and families.
My original goal was to map only residents of the Glebe or former students at Glebe Collegiate who were killed or died while on active service. In order to map these men, I needed to extend the map of the Glebe beyond the recognized boundaries of the neighbourhood, as many students of the high school lived outside the neighbourhood. In the end, it seemed the full complete story could not be told unless I mapped each and every one of the fallen—airmen, soldier or sailor—whose next-of-kin resided within the edges of my map, regardless of their connection to the Glebe.
Each pin on the map represents the home of the fallen’s next-of-kin. For the most part, this meant the parental home or the marital home (the apartment shared with a wife), but in a few cases, where parents were deceased, this could mean the home of a grandparent, uncle or even sibling. I used only addresses that were mentioned in Casualty Lists or as reported in the daily broadsheet newspapers.
The 392 men I was able to put on my map represent only a tiny fraction of the men and women who died in the war. But among these 392 names I found the complete picture of the war as it affected my country. There were men who died in the opening hours of the war and men who died in the closing days. There were men who died on Valentine’s Day, D-Day, Canada Day, Remembrance Day, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Most died on active service and in combat, but some died of disease and even murder. There were men who died in car accidents overseas and training accidents in Canada. Every major battle that Canadians were involved in is represented by someone in this group—The Battle of the Atlantic, the Battle of France, the Battle of Britain, Battle of Hong Kong, of Ortona, of Monte Cassino, of El Alamein, of Anzio, of the Scheldt Estuary, the Dieppe Raid, Dam Busters Raid, D-Day, Battle for Caen, Battle of the Falaise Pocket, the Siege of Malta, the North African Campaign, the Conquest of Sicily, the Aleutian Campaign, Bomber Command, Fighter Command, Coastal Command, Transport Command, the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, Burma, Singapore and more. Some were lost in the Mediterranean Sea, the North Sea, the Irish Sea, the Atlantic Ocean and the English Channel. Some died before they could get to the war, others on their way to the war. Some died after the war but before they could get home. They are buried in Holland, Italy, Great Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, Canada, North Africa and of course at sea. Many have no known grave and are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial, the Malta Memorial, the Halifax Memorial, the Bayeux Memorial, the Groesbeek Memorial, and the Ottawa Memorial.
Having scanned every page of the Ottawa Journal and the Ottawa Citizen from September 1939 to September 1945, I learned that Canada was not the idyllic land I once believed it was in the years leading up to and throughout the war years. I had always imagined a world of church-going, clean-living, Saturday-night-dancing, honour-before-all innocence. The kind of honest and forthright world that gave birth to the Greatest Generation. But it was a world that, in many ways, was far bleaker, harder and unkinder than the world we live in today. Right off the bat, I noticed an extraordinary amount of industrial accidents, horrific workplace injuries, train wrecks, car-train collisions, fires, drownings, and accidents due to unsafe practices. As well theft, robbery, assault and murder seemed as or more common than they are today, multiple murders included. Institutionalized soft-core racism prevailed. Decades of government intervention, prevention and education has, in fact, improved things considerably. Yet, despite the cruel world of 1939, everyone in Canada read from the same page, got their news from the same trusted sources and fundamentally believed in the same things.
In the end, I found 392 names of service men who were included on casualty lists and for whom I found an address. I have another 50 or more names of men who I know were killed but I can’t find their addresses. There are, I am convinced others who I haven’t yet found on casualty lists. The 392 are by no means all of the men who died and lived in this area—they are only the ones whose story I found. I welcome any additions and omissions. I am presently working with my web developer to display this data on Google Maps, thus enabling us and you to add to the list and perhaps one day, map all of the approximately 110,000 Canadians who died in wars since the Boer War.
In the 13 years of the War in Afghanistan, Canada lost 158 soldiers and seven civilians. Ask any Canadian and they will tell you it was a terrible price. In the five years of the Second World War my small neighbourhood lost nearly 400. May we never forget them. Here is the map of the devastation felt by my community in the Second World War—the location of each man’s home is shown, followed by their photos. If I found an address but no photo, I used a photo of either their grave stone or the memorial upon which their name is engraved.
This project began as a result of curiosity and then became a Remembrance Day Project that I struggled for months to complete. Sadly, I was still adding names well after the 11th of November. It is now simply an homage to a generation of parents, brothers, sisters, wives and grandparents who carried the terrible weight of sacrifice well into the 21st Century. An homage to the Silver Star Mothers, the broken fathers, the shattered families and the solitary wives. God bless them.
The Map
A map of the fallen showing the homes of men who died in Second World War and who lived in the Glebe or who went to Glebe High School. In the age of “infographics” this map reveals the terrible truth about the numbers who died in the war—more so than just a number like 392. In this map of downtown Ottawa, I have pinned the addresses of next-of-kin at the time of each serviceman’s death—either their parents’ home or that of their wives and children if they were married. If both addresses were available in the records, I opted for the parental home—only one pin for each fallen serviceman. Air Force deaths are in red, Army in black and Navy in blue. The area in yellow depicts the traditional boundaries of the Glebe neighbourhood, with the area in pink being the expanded Glebe “Annex”, which was largely undeveloped during the war years—occupied by J. R. Booth’s Fraserfield lumber storage yard. Glebe High School is marked by the larger orange circle (the centre red pin is for Bruce Pollack who was a teacher at the school). The red and black triangles represent men who attended Glebe High School but who lived outside the edges of this arbitrary map. They point in the general direction of that man’s home. The large cluster of pins at the top right of this map can be explained by the fact that this part of town was and still is occupied by many three, four and five storey apartment buildings. Areas where there seems to be fewer pins are areas that were more fully developed after the war (to the east). In 1941, there were still 152 vacant lots in the Glebe, many of them on the west side next to the Glebe Annex where there are fewer pins (First, Second, Third and Fourth Avenues). Map created by Dave O’Malley
TOP ROW: 1 Pilot Officer David Francis Gaston Rouleau, 2 Pilot Officer Peter Gordon Anderson, 3 Sergeant James Blaine Anderson, 4 Pilot Officer Lewis Johnstone Burpee, 5 Sergeant George Earnest Armstrong, 6 Pilot Officer Douglas James Arniel, 7 Leading Aircraftman Arthur Wellington Ault, 8 Aircraftman 1st Class William Harold Beasley—ROW 2: 9 Flying Officer Joseph Ronald Beasley, 10 Flying Officer William Stewart Bonell, 11 Flight Sergeant George Arnold Booth, 12 Flying Officer Philip Bosloy, 13 Flight Sergeant Peter William Bisset Box, 14 Flying Officer John Greer Boyle, 15 Pilot Officer Robert Joseph Bradley, 16 Flight Sergeant Arthur Allen Bussell—ROW 3:17 Flight Lieutenant Gerald Harry Cheetham, 18 Flying Officer Peter Bryson Code, 19 Pilot Officer David Edward Crockatt, 20 Pilot Officer Donald Seymour Dadson, 21 Squadron Leader William Henry Baldwin, 22 Warrant Officer Kenneth Lyle Dale, 23 Flight Sergeant Gordon Johnston Darling, 24 Warrant Officer 1 Francis William Darragh—ROW 4:25 Pilot Officer William Scott Findlay, 26 Flying Officer Charles Eric Dewar, 27 Pilot Officer William Edmund Dubroy, 28 Wing Commander John Sydney Dunlevie, 29 Pilot Officer Thomas Edwin Dunlop, 30 Flying Officer James Lyman Eagleson, 31 Flying Officer Donal Mervyn Eastman, 32 Pilot Officer Dennis Fitzmaurice Foy
TOP ROW:33 Sergeant George Joseph Goodwin, 34 Pilot Officer George Clarence Goold, 35 Pilot Officer Robert MacFarlane Graham, 36 Flying Officer William Donald Graves, 37 Flying Officer Harold Garfield Handley, 38 Warrant Officer 2 Harold Arthur Healey, 39 Flight Sergeant Leslie Nellis Hodgins, 40 Warrant Officer 1 Calvert Hamilton Hunter—ROW 2:41 Flying Officer David Lloyd Irwin, 42 Sergeant George Wilbert Jeffrey, 43 Flight Lieutenant John Alfred Johnson, 44 Flight Sergeant Edwin Herbert Kingsland, 45 Flight Sergeant James Kelleher Player, 46 Sergeant Wilfred Robert Little, 47 Pilot Officer Herman Mervyn Lowry, 48 Flying Officer John Scott McIntyre—ROW 3:49 Flight Sergeant James Garfield MacKay, 50 Sergeant Andrew Kenneth MacLean, 51 Flying Officer David John MacMillan, 52 Flight Sergeant Harold Ernest Magladry, 53 Flying Officer Eric William McCann, 54 Warrant Officer 1 Leonard Myles McCann, 55 Flying Officer Raymond Norman McCleery, 56 Sergeant Charles John Frederick McCrum—ROW 4:57 Pilot Officer Alexander Ian McFarlane, 58 Flight Lieutenant Donal Joseph McKenna, 59 Flight Sergeant Charles McKerns, 60 Flight Sergeant William McIntyre McLachlin, 61 Flying Officer Harry Dwaine Merkley, 62 Pilot Officer Allan Murray Minard, 63 Flight Sergeant Perry Lawrence Mitchell, 64 Flying Officer James Lambert Moore
TOP ROW:65 Pilot Officer Vincent Merrill MacDonald Morrison, 66 Flying Officer William Robinson Morrison, 67 Flying Officer Thomas Baillie, 68 Pilot Officer Gregory Ross Bourdon, 69 Flying Officer Donald Lloyd Breadner, 70 Pilot Officer William Kenneth Colfe, 71 Group Captain Herbert Reginald Carefoot, 72 Pilot Officer Thomas Gordon Nettleton —ROW 2:73 Sergeant Donald Lawrence Moulds, 74 Flight Lieutenant William Joseph Bernard Murphy, 75 Pilot Officer Earl Hector Atkins, 76 Flight Sergeant John Joseph Kincaid, 77 Flying Officer Charles Robertson Olmsted, 78 Pilot Officer Frank Kerr Orme, 79 Pilot Officer John Sumner Owens, 80 Flying Officer Douglas Rendall Parker—ROW 3:81 Pilot Officer John Richard Patterson, 82 Warrant Officer 1 William George Pavely, 83 Flying Officer Samuel Alexander Phillips, 84 Flying Officer Bruce Leroy Parkinson Pollock, 85 Flight Sergeant David Haynes Barcham Powell, 86 Pilot Officer Bruce Andrew Power, 87 Flying Officer David Mayson Price, 88 Corporal David Alexander Rennie—ROW 4:89 Flying Officer David Brownlee Robertson, 90 Pilot Officer John Noble Rombough, 91 Pilot Officer Thomas Ross Williams, 92 Pilot Officer Donald John Sterling, 93 Pilot Officer Warren Oliver Slack, 94 Flight Sergeant Francis Joseph Hogan, 95 Flight Lieutenant Gerald Barclay Snow, 96 Flying Officer Arnold Irwin Watterson
TOP ROW: 97 Leading Aircraftman Linley Douglas Wetmore, 98 Flying Officer James Bennett Wilson, 99 Flying Officer William James Windeler, 100 Flying Officer Allen Garnett Wright, 101 Flight Lieutenant George Percival Wyse, 102 Flight Sergeant Gordon Gerald Hart, 103 Warrant Officer Zino Manford Niblock , 104 Pilot Officer Robert John McCallum—ROW 2: 105 Squadron Leader Emerson Weldon Cowan, 106 Flight Sergeant Robert Henry Cowley, 107 Flying Officer Peter William Lochnan, 108 Squadron Leader James Easson Hogg, 109 Flight Sergeant Harold James Beattie, 110 Flight Sergeant Douglas Gordon Ide, 111 Warrant Officer 2 Carleton Ernest Caldwell, 112 Warrant Officer 1 Eric Douglas Ralph Botten—ROW 3: 113 Flying Officer Robert Stuart Butterworth, 114 Wing Commander John Despard Twigg, 115 Flight Lieutenant James Angus Francis Halcro, 116 Flying Officer John James Earls, 117 Flying Officer Robert William Clarke, 118 Sergeant Harry George Hydes, 119 Pilot Officer Thomas Lloyd Bennett, 120 Warrant Officer 1 Leonard Norman Fresque—ROW 4: 121 Flight Lieutenant Charles Tom Cantrill, 122 Pilot Officer Ashton Irving Cohen, 123 Pilot Officer Kenneth George Cummings, 124 Flight Sergeant Charles Howard Cobbett, 125 Squadron Leader Eric Thomas Garrett, 126 Pilot Officer Kenneth Robert Grant Millar, 127 Sergeant Donald Murray Smith, 128 Pilot Officer Owen Arthur O’Leary
TOP ROW: 129 Corporal Cecil George Heeney, 130 Flying Officer Robert Tilton Heeney, 131 Warrant Officer 2 Clement William Hall, 132 Gunner Winston Hart Morehouse, 133 Pilot Officer Francis Henry Leaver, 134 Sergeant Dominico Guiseppe Calderone, 135 Pilot Officer James Lorne Kenneth Daly, 136 Sergeant Ian Alistair MacDonald—ROW 2: 137 Sergeant John Gregory O’Gorman, 138 Flight Sergeant Albert Thomas Bradly, 139 Flying Officer Williard Irving Post, 140 Pilot Officer John Robert Marriott, 141 Flying Officer Donald Ross Gilchrist, 142 Flying Officer Fred Charles Allen, 143 Warrant Officer Class Daniel Joseph Somers, 144 Pilot Officer Grant Alexander Fletcher—ROW 3: 145 Pilot Officer Gerald Henry Armstrong, 146 Flying Officer Francis Wilfred Moffit, 147 Flight Sergeant Leo John Labarge, 148 Pilot Officer Bernard Henry Labarge, 149 Pilot Officer Benjamin Victor Starrup, 150 Flying Officer Lester Ferguson Blakeney, 151 Squadron Leader Kenneth Arthur Boomer, 152 Flight Sergeant Arthur Ernest Charron—ROW 4: 153 Pilot Officer Ellard Alexander Cummings, 154 Flying Officer William Burton Ernst, 155 Flying Officer Joseph Vincent Collingwood, 156 Pilot Officer James Elliot Schwerdfager, 157 Flight Lieutenant Saxon Millis Cole, 158 Pilot Officer Wincell Henry Dugmore Spence, 159 Flight Sergeant Douglas Harrison Stewart, 160 Pilot Officer Denis John Richardson
TOP ROW: 161 Flying Officer Patrick Blake Dennison, 162 Flying Officer Arthur Bebbington Long, 163 Flight Lieutenant Stewart Foster Garland, 164 Flight Lieutenant Wallace Dicker Stroud, 165 Sergeant Albert Richard McWhinney, 166 Pilot Officer Gordon Douglas Hay, 167 Flying Officer Louis Eber Eldred Robinson, 168 Leading Aircraftman Joseph Harold Golding—ROW 2: 169 Warrant Officer 1 James Augustus Smart, 170 Pilot Officer Charles Donald Mison, 171 Pilot Officer John Nathan Treadwell, 172 Flying Officer Donaldson Rendal Holloway, 173 Pilot Officer Joseph Henry Yvon Albert, 174 Flight Lieutenant John Alfred Malloy, 175 Squadron Leader Francis Evan Robert Briggs, 176 Sergeant Alexander Angus Cameron—ROW 3: 177 Flight Sergeant Edward Lawrence Armstrong, 178 Leading Aircraftman George Hamilton Crawford, 179 Pilot Officer Gordon Robert Day, 180 Flight Lieutenant Richard Nicholas Ferris, 181 Flying Officer Douglas Emerson Geldart, 182 Pilot Officer Martin Allan Knight, 183 Flying Officer Gordon Patrick James Kimmins, 184 Flight Lieutenant Richard Chilrose Lawrence—ROW 4: 185 Flying Officer George Murray MacLean, 186 Flying Officer Richard Gerard Mansfield, 187 Warrant Officer I Michael James Doran McGuire, 188 Flying Officer Lynden Arnold McIntyre, 189 Flying Officer Donald Rae McLean, 190 Flying Officer David Bernard Lawrence McMahon, 191 Flight Sergeant Robert Learmonth Melville, 192 Warrant Officer I Alan Hubert Andrew Morris
TOP ROW: 193 Leading Aircraftman John Wellesley Munro, 194 Flight Sergeant Davey William Newman, 195 Pilot Officer Robert George Hill, 196 Warrant Officer 2 Harold Jason Thurston, 197 Sergeant Eric James Post, 198 Pilot Officer Henry Eric Rath, 199 Flight Sergeant Stanleigh Lowry Reid, 200 Flying Officer John David Lindsay—ROW 2:201 Flying Officer Ronald William Alexander Rankin, 202 Sergeant Raymond Reid Riddell, 203 Sergeant John Donald Robertson, 204 Leading Aircraftman Joseph Theodore Arthur Schryburt, 205 Pilot Officer William John Hope, 206 Flying Officer Walter Young James Soper, 207 Flying Officer William Hector Thompson, 208 Flying Officer Howard Pearson Ralph—ROW 3: 209 Leading Aircraftman John Harold Whalen, 210 Warrant Officer1 Godfrey Phillip White, 211 Sergeant Ross Thomas Murdie, 212 Warrant Officer 2 Harold James Langford Copping, 213 Sergeant Joseph William Du Broy, 214 Sergeant Walter Alexander Hill, 215 Sergeant Roy Kennedy, 216 Flying Officer Robert Ernest O’Heare—ROW 4: 217 Flying Officer Lawrence Francis O’Brien, 218 Flight Lieutenant William Meredith Sterns, 219 Pilot Officer Thomas Gerald Boucher, 220 Flight Sergeant Verne Arthur Joseph Poulin, 221 Warrant Officer 2 Roy Frederick Shattock, 222 Pilot Officer John Donald Buchanan, 223 Leading Aircraftman Robert Harold Prosser, 224 Flying Officer Gordon David Bowes
TOP ROW: 225 Flight Sergeant Donald Malcolm Moodie, 226 Flying Officer George Douglas Spencer, 227 Flight Sergeant John Joseph Carey, 228 Flying Officer Douglas Nugent Donald, 229 Corporal Cecil Adrian Hale, 230 Flight Sergeant John Bourne Jamieson, 231 Corporal Hugh Allan Powers, 232 Flying Officer Donald Daubney Connor—ROW 2: 233 Pilot Officer Thomas Edward George Howe, 234 Sergeant Edward Hinchey Hodgins, 235 Flying Officer Ernest Stuart Guiton, 236 Warrant Officer 1 Richard Barnett Blake, 237 Sergeant Joseph John Francis Holland, 238 Warrant Officer 2 James Millar Brownie, 239 Flight Sergeant Samuel Lewis Silver, 240 Sergeant Jack William Irish—ROW 3: 241 Pilot Officer Gerard McKee Beech, 242 Flight Lieutenant Douglas Elliott Berry, 243 Flying Officer Donald Arthur Willett, 244 Pilot Officer James Donald Alexander Foley, 245 Pilot Officer Allen Bruce Pattison, 246 Warrant Officer 2 Angus Daniel MacDonald, 247 Warrant Officer 2 Jack Cooper, 248 Sergeant Stuart Frank Beeching Bott—ROW 4: 249 Private Lloyd Duncan Aitkenhead, 250 Private John Lloyd Russell Bradley, 251 Private John Carrwon Coburn, 252 Warrant Officer 2 Richard Albert Bradshaw, 253 Quarter Master Sergeant Earle Warwicker Camero, 254 Lieutenant Sidney Darling, 255 Signalman Thomas Malcolm Dean, 256 Lieutenant Elbert Watson Dowd
TOP ROW: 257 Lieutenant William Mills Foster, 258 Lieutenant Harold Crawford Fisher, 259 Lieutenant William Hague Harrington, 260 Lieutenant Clifford William Kerr, 261 Captain Gerald Albert Lidington, 262 Able Seaman Ashley Kilburn MacDonald, 263 Lieutenant Colin Stone MacDonald, 264 Lieutenant John Albert MacDonald—ROW 2: 265 Sergeant Neil Richardson MacDonald, 266 Lieutenant Charles Richard Maundrell, 267 Captain James Stewart Watt, 268 Captain John Arthur Watt, 269 Ordinary Seaman James Ralph Millar, 270 Private William Sydney Cable, 271 Private Gordon Howard Colville, 272 Private Stephen William Wallace—ROW 3: 273 Lieutenant Commander Clifton Rexford Tony Coughlin, 274 Sergeant Wallace Wilfred Ducharme, 275 Guardsman Earl Abner Steen, 276 Sergeant Joseph Hugh King, 277 Able Seaman Robert Ansley Cavanagh, 278 Private William Russell Smith, 279 Trooper Norman Richard Hayter, 280 Private Walter Douglas Gardner—ROW 4: 281 Lance Sergeant Ray Wallace Beaton, 282 Sergeant George Jackman, 283 Corporal Edward Albert Langman, 284 Captain Walter Lloyd Hutton, 285 Private Arthur Campbell Wilkinson, 286 Private Charles James Williams, 287 Sub-Lieutenant Keith Francis Wright, 288 Private David Thomas Moffatt
TOP ROW: 289 Lieutenant James Patterson Day, 290 Private Joseph Louis Kenneth McCann, 291 Lieutenant Lionel Mariner (Fritz) Palmer, 292 Lance Sergeant Fabien Fleury, 293 Captain Walter James Williamson, 294 Lieutenant Emmett Patrick Joseph O’Dell Finn, 295 Trooper Edward McBain Stroulger, 296 Lance Sergeant John Lloyd McGuire—ROW 2: 297 Captain Grant Frederick Amy, 298 LAC Joseph Raymond Stuart Earl Dority, 299 Lieutenant Pitman Elwood Scharfe, 300 Private Robert Thomas Watson, 301 Trooper Lenard Wilfred Meryle Barclay, 302 Captain Edward Gordon Jamieson, 303 Captain Joseph Leslie Engler, 304 Sapper Kenneth Sheehan—ROW 3: 305 Corporal Charles Rolland Lecompte, 306 Trooper Kenneth Edgar Smith, 307 Signalman Ernest Albert Boyce Laidlaw, 308 Sub-Lieutenant (acting) Arthur G. Byshe, 309 Lieutenant Fernie Bemister Stewart, 310 Private Harold Sandford Angel, 311 Corporal Mike Myer Litwack, 312 Major Keith Elwood Richardson—ROW 4: 313 Private Earl Alwyn Delmer, 314 Master Petty Officer Norman V. Dority, 315 Sapper Edwin Cowley, 316 Sergeant Sydney Vincent Gerald Partridge, 317 Warrant Officer 1 John Albert Pollock, 318 Gunner Arthur Swartman, 319 Captain Joseph William Courtright, 320 Lieutenant Robert Bruce Murchison
TOP ROW: 321 Private William Glen McAllister, 322 Private Ervin Lawrence Dunn, 323 Sergeant Eric George Midgley, 324 Private Edward J. Major, 325 Lieutenant John Lawrence Morgan, 326 Lieutenant Commander Digby Rex Bell Cosh, 327 Flying Officer Clarence Sydney Robson, 328 Lieutenant Warwick Edwin Walmsley Steeves—ROW 2: 329 Sergeant Frank Charles Stevens, 330 Private Archie Clark, 331 Sergeant Frederick Irwin Stata, 332 Flight Sergeant John Lorn Rochester, 333 Lieutenant Richard Norman Stewart, 334 Lieutenant Francis Lewis Joseph Arnett, 335 Lance Corporal Stuart Alexander MacDonell, 336 Sapper Donald William Spence— ROW 3: 337 Private Paul Edward Riffon, 338 Private Robert Edward Rayner, 339 Flying Officer Ronald William Alexander Rankin, 340 Flying Officer George Daryll McLean, 341 Private Donald Sutherland McAngus, 342 Supply Assistant Francis Quinlan, 343 Corporal William Leslie Hemming, 344 Captain Thomas Emmet Clarke—ROW 4: 345 Sergeant Thomas Leslie Stuchbery, 346 Lieutenant Robert Louis Richard, 347 Corporal Harold Frederick Montgomery, 348 Lieutenant Francis Wilfred Doyle, 349 Sergeant Gerald Clelland Nichol, 350 Corporal Michael James Cleary, 351 Private James Davidson, 352 Leading Aircraftman Edwin Drake
TOP ROW: 353 Sergeant Gerald Richardson, 354 Private Leonard James Hunter, 355 Flying Officer Robert Jamieson Gray, 356 Private Arthur Stewart, 357 Pilot Officer William Lysle Buchanan, 358 Sergeant Joseph William Dubroy, 359 Corporal Donald Fraser Shearn, 360 Flight Sergeant Robert Slessor Geddes—ROW 2: 361 Pilot Officer Donald Frederick McCorkle, 362 Warrant Officer 2 Robert Laird Cameron, 363 Staff Sergeant Douglas Raymond Gardner, 364 Sergeant Farrell James McGovern, 365 Corporal Charles James Johnstone, 366 Walter A. Garvin, DND, 367 Leading Aircraftman Douglas Ernest Paul, 368 Private James Cochrane —ROW 3: 369 Trooper Homer Charles Courtright, 370 Sergeant Donald George Hutt, 371 Leading Aircraftman Edwin Drake, 372 Warrant Officer 1 Ernest Hayes, 373 Pilot Officer Robert Joseph Miller, 374 Guardsman Robert Roy Burns, 375 Sergeant John Robert Maynard, 376 Leading Aircraftman William Mossop Taylor, 377 Sergeant Harold Ernest Boyce, 378 Flight Sergeant Vincent Brophy, 379 Pilot Officer Donald John MacFarlane, 380 Private John Gerald Patrick Wellington, 381 Lieutenant (SB) Leslie, 382 Private James Dempster, 383 Private Kenneth Neil Joseph Rozak, 384 Lance Sergeant Donald Norman MacLeod
385 Sergeant John Lamb, 386 Sergeant Edward Alexander Baldwin, 387 Lieutenant Arthur Griffith Waldron, 388 Sergeant Percy Edward Gibson, 389 Lance Sergeant Alexander Hannay, 390 Private Joseph Skillen, 391 Warrant Officer 1 Michael James Doran McGuire, 392 Warrant Officer 2 John Willard Jamieson
We would like to offer our sincere gratitude to Dave O’Malley, and by extension, Vintage Wings of Canada, for allowing us to republish this important story. To see more of O’Malley’s remarkable work, and to learn more about the remarkable efforts of Vintage Wings of Canada, please do visit their website HERE.
Addendum: In the week or so since Dave O’Malley published this story, he has discovered twenty two further men that should be added to the list. He eventually expects the list to top 450 once he has completed his search. Also, for those curious to know why no women were mentioned on this list, this is not for the lack of looking, it is just that so far O’Malley has not found the names of any women from the Glebe who died in military service during WWII. In taking a look myself, I found that more than 50,000 Canadian women served in uniform during WWII, with 83 of them dying during that time (compared to more than 1.1 million men in uniform, of whom over 43,000 died).
We hope you took some time breathing in the volume of names in Dave O’Malley’s piece, and that some of you will write in to share your thoughts…
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