Ontario

McAllister Private is dedicated to Squadron Leader John Everett McAllister, DFC.

John Everett McAllister was born in 1921 in Milltown, New Brunswick. He studied at the University of New Brunswick, serving in the Contingent of the Canadian Officers' Training Corps and the Carleton and York Regiment before joining the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1941. Following the completion of his flight training, he was assigned to 415 Squadron in August, 1944, and promoted to Flight Lieutenant in September, 1944. In October, 1944, while flying his Halifax bomber on a mission to Wanna Eickel, his aircraft was hit by a heavy flak, but he continued onto his target and returned safely. For his actions, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. The citation reads:

“In October 1944, this officer was the pilot of an aircraft detailed to attack Wanne Eickel. Whilst many miles from the target area, the aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire. A large hole was torn in the nose of the aircraft, the navigator was wounded and had to be taken to a rest position for attention. Nevertheless, Flight Lieutenant McAllister went on to the target and executed a successful attack. He afterwards flew the damaged aircraft back to an airfield in this country and effected a safe landing in difficult circumstances. Flight Lieutenant McAllister displayed high qualities of leadership, skill and resolution throughout.”

Promoted to Squadron Leader in February 1945, he went on to complete thirty-one missions with the last being on March 14, 1945.

Sampson Private is dedicated to Group Captain Frank Augustus Sampson OBE, CdeG (France), Legion of Merit.

Frank Augustus Sampson was born in 1905 in Toronto. He studied engineering at the University of Toronto and served with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Reserves before his appointment to the permanent Air Force as a pilot, in 1927. From 1937 until 1939, Sampson was attached to the Royal Air Force overseas, where he had extensive service in flying boat operations out of the UK, Malta, and Singapore.

In 1940, he was appointed to Air Force HQ, Ottawa, where he was responsible for the return to the United States of all US nationals serving in the Canadian Armed Forces. For his effectiveness in carrying out this work, he received the United States Legion of Merit. In 1942, he was appointed Commanding Officer of No. 2 Service Flying Training School at Ottawa (Uplands) with the rank of Group Captain. In 1943, he was posted to the UK and served as Commanding Officer of several stations in the RCAF’s No. 6 Bomber Group.

Early in 1945, he was posted to the staff of “Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Forces,” where he carried out duties in connection with the liberation of prisoners of war and remained overseas with RCAF Overseas HQ until repatriated to Canada in 1946. On his return, he became Chief Staff Officer, Northwest Air Command HQ in Edmonton before being appointed Air Attaché to Argentina followed by Air Attaché to France. He retired in 1955.

Breadner Boulevard is dedicated to the memory of Air Marshal Lloyd Samuel Breadner.

Lloyd Samuel Breadner was born in July, 1894, in Carleton Place. In 1915, he left the family business in Ottawa to enlist in the Royal Naval Air Service. He spent most of the First World War as a fighter pilot in France. When the war ended, his flying skills won him a position with the Canadian Air Board.

Breadner was appointed Commanding Officer of the Camp Borden in 1924. He rapidly moved up the hierarchy and served as Director of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) from 1928 to 1932. In 1936, Breadner received training at the Imperial Defence College. In 1940, he succeeded G.M. Croil as Chief of Air Staff.

During the Second World War, Breadner turned the RCAF into one of the most powerful air forces in the world. On January 1^st, 1944, he was posted in London as Air Officer Commander-in-Chief, RCAF Overseas. Upon his retirement in 1945, Lloyd Breadner was promoted to Chief Air Marshal, the only Canadian ever to hold this rank. He died in March, 1952 in Boston.

Clements Private is dedicated to Air Commodore William Isaac Clements, OBE, Croix de Guerre with Gold Star (France).

Born in North Devon, New Brunswick, William Isaac Clements attended the Royal Military College, joining the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) at Camp Borden in June, 1930. He was awarded his pilot wings in October, 1931, and attached to the Royl Air Force in March, 1939. Serving with No. 53 Squadron at the outbreak of the Second World War, he holds the distinction of being the first member of the RCAF to fly a wartime sortie in September, 1939.

He continued to serve with the RCAF after the war, working at Air Force Headquarters and later in the mid-1950s, was appointed AOC of Maritime Air Command. He died in Metz, France in February, 1988.

Croil Private is dedicated to Air Vice-Marshal George Mitchel Croil.

George Mitchel Croil was born in June, 1893, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. At the outbreak of the First World War, he joined the Royal Flying Corps and trained new pilots in Salonika, Macedonia and in the Middle East, and was, for some time, T.E. Lawrence’s (Lawrence of Arabia) own pilot on desert missions.

Appointed to the Canadian Air Board in 1919, Croil helped ensure that Canada maintained an air force during the peace era. When the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) was founded in 1924, Croil was among its first officers. In 1925, he was sent to Britain as liaison officer with the Royal Air Force (RAF) and attended training at the RAF Staff College. Back in Canada, he served for five years as Commanding Officer of the Camp Borden.

In 1931, Croil completed his training at the Imperial Defence College. He was appointed Senior Air Officer with the RCAF and in 1938 was promoted to Air Vice-Marshal and appointed Canada’s first Chief of Air Staff. In 1940 he was asked to take on the position of RCAF Inspector General and retired in 1944. He died in April 1959, in Vancouver.

Curtis Private is dedicated to Air Marshal Wilfred Austin “Wilf” Curtis, OC, CB, CBE, DSC & Bar, ED, CD.

Wilfred Austin Curtis was born in Havelock, ON, in August 1893. Completing his education in Toronto, he joined the Army in 1915, and later transferred to the Royal Naval Air Service as a fighter pilot. He was awarded a DSC and later a Bar to his DSC for the skill and courage he demonstrated throughout his First World War service.

During the inter-war years, Curtis served in the Toronto Scottish Regiment and transferred to the newly formed No. 10 Squadron in 1933, becoming its Officer Commanding in 1935. He was called back to active service in 1939 and was Deputy Air Officer commanding, RCAF Overseas the RCAF through the difficult stages of reorganization which followed the war and through the expansion of Canada’s participation in the Korean War and NATO.

He retired in 1953, joining the private sector where he continued to have substantial impact on the development of aviation in Canada, including the development of the CF-100 Canuck and the ill-fated CF-105 Arrow. He died in August, 1977.

De Niverville Private is dedicated to Air Vice Marshal Joseph Lionel Alphege Albert De Niverville, CB.

Albert De Niverville was born in August 1897 in Montreal. Educated in Ottawa, he joined the Royal Flying Corps in 1917 and flew until the end of the First World War. Following the war, he was a Pilot Officer in the Canadian Air Force Reserve, working with the Air Board until March 1924, at which time he was appointed to the newly-formed Permanent RCAF on April 1, 1924.

He served as a Flying instructor at Camp Borden until September 1927 and was then transferred to AFHG as Staff Officer Training until April, 1931. De Niverville returned to instructing at Station Vancouver where he instructed on sea planes and flying boats, transferring to Station Rockcliffe in 1932. He completed RAF Staff College in 1933 and returned to AFHQ from January, 1934 to February, 1936, followed by an appointment as Air Staff Officer for Military District No. 4 (Montreal) until February, 1939.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, he returned to AFHQ then became CO of No. 2 Service Flying Training School in August, 1941 before being appointed Air Officer Commanding No. 3 Training Command, from October, 1941, to November, 1943. He was later appointed Air Member for Training at Air Force Headquarters. Following the Second World War, he joined the Department of Transportation, retiring in November, 1964.

Leckie Private is dedicated to Air Marshall Robert Leckie CB, DSO, DSC, DFC, CD.

Robert Leckie was born in April 1890 at Glasgow, Scotland. He joined the Royal Naval Air Service in 1915, flying anti-submarine patrols over the North Sea. While flying a Curtiss H12 flying boat, Leckie downed a German zeppelin near Terschelling in May 1917 and downed a second zeppelin during a nighttime raid, thus becoming the only airman to be credited with downing 2 zeppelins. By the end of the war, Leckie was a Wing Commander in the RAF.

Between the wars, he was seconded to the Canadian Air Board, and oversaw the creation of air service throughout Canada. He later returned to the RAF, and by 1940 commanded the British Air Forces in the Mediterranean Sea. As the war expanded later that year, Leckie returned to Canada as Air Member for Training, the officer in charge of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP). He transferred to the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1942. Promoted to Air Marshal in 1944, he was appointed Chief of the Air Staff, a position he held until 1947.

After his retirement from the RCAF, Leckie played an active role in the Air Cadet Movement. He died in Ottawa in March 1975.

McGill Private is named in honour of Air Vice-Marshall Frank Scholes McGill, CB.

Frank Scholes McGill was born in June 1894 in Montreal, graduating from McGill University where he starred in varsity football and hockey, eventually playing professional football for the Montreal AAA Winged Wheelers in a precursor to the CFL. At the outbreak of the First World War, he joined the Royal Naval Air Service, flying anti-submarine missions. In 1918, he was seconded to the US Navy as an instructor, but returned to the UK to resume patrols. Following the war, he served with the Air Force Auxiliary (No. 15 Squadron), as well as, continuing his business interests.

He was called up to active service at the outbreak of the Second World War and became Commanding Officer of No. 1 Service Flying Training School at Camp Borden followed by an appointment as first Commanding Officer No. 2 Service Flying Training School at Uplands. Further postings followed as Director of Postings and Records at AFHQ, and as Commanding Officer of No. 2 (Movements) Group Headquarters at Halifax and to RCAF Station Trenton in 1942.

In 1943 he was promoted Air Commodore and given command of No. 2 Training Command in Toronto. Following another promotion to Air Vice Marshal, he returned to AFHQ in December 1943, where he remained for the rest of the war as Air Member for Supply and Organization.

McGill retired from the RCAF in 1946, following which he was Director of the Aircraft Production branch of the Department of Defence Production. He died in Montreal in June 1980.

Slemon Private is named in honour of Air Marshall Charles Roy Slemon, CB, CBE, CD.

Charles Roy Slemon was born in November 1904 in Winnipeg and studied engineering at the University of Manitoba. He was one of the first pilot officers trained in the Royal Canadian Air Force and spent much of the following years flying Vickers Vedettes in support of aerial photography and mapping operations. He was transferred to the operations staff at AFHQ in 1935 and completed Royal Air Force Staff College in 1937.

Slemon was appointed Senior Staff Officer and then Commander of Western Air Command in 1938 followed by a posting overseas to the UK in 1941, then to No. 6 Bomber Group in 1942. In 1945, he was appointed Deputy Air Officer Commander-in-Chief of the RCAF overseas and was notably selected to command the Royal Canadian Air Force effort in the Far East.

Following the Second World War, he served on the Air Council in Ottawa; was appointed Commander Training in September 1949 and served as Chief of the Air Staff from 1953 to 1957. In 1957, he became Deputy Commander-in-Chief, NORAD until his retirement in 1964. Air Marshall Slemon died in Colorado Springs in February 1992.