This stained glass window is dedicated to the memory of Air Commodore John Gay Stephenson, OBE, AFC, CD.
John Gay Stephenson was born in Windows, Ontario in April, 1914. Following the completion of his high school education, he went on to the Royal Military College and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in July, 1938. He obtained his “wings” in June, 1939, and remained at Trenton as Chief Flight Instructor, with a later appointment as Commanding Officer at No. 2 Service Flying Training School at RCAF Station Uplands.
Posted overseas in 1944 with 432 Squadron, he was shot down and spent the remainder of the war as a prisoner of war. After release from a prisoner of war camp in Germany, then Group Captain Stephenson took over as Senior Personnel Staff Officer of Eastern Air Command in August 1945, and throughout the difficult period of demobilization that followed.
He also held appointments at CJS (Washington), AFHQ (1948 – 1951), Imperial Defence College, CO at Rockcliffe, SASO Training Command HQ (Trenton) from 1954 to 1957, and then to AFHQ. He was killed in an air accident in April, 1960 while an Air Commodore.
