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In memory of:

Pilot Officer John Wilson Summerhayes

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Military service

Service number: J/89358
Age: 23
Rank: Pilot Officer
Force: Air Force
Unit/Regiment: Royal Canadian Air Force
Division: 426 Sqdn.
Birth: April 17, 1921 Ridgetown, Ontario
Enlistment: August 31, 1942 Ontario
Death: May 13, 1944 Schendelbeke, Belgium

Burial/memorial information

GERAARDSBERGEN (GRAMMONT) COMMUNAL CEMETERY
Grave reference: Coll. Grave 1.
Additional information
Son of Philip Charles Leo and Daisy Rosella (nee Dodman). Raised in Brantford, Ontario, Jack attended high school for one year and did some farm work. In 1938 he started work as a mill hand at the Dunlop Tire and Rubber Company in Buffalo, New York, moving on to become a machinist at Goldie, McCullough in Galt. During 1940, Jack moved back to Brantford, Ontario where he was a machine operator for the Coshutt Plough Company. On June 6, 1942, he married Bernice Annie (nee Anderson).

Jack had previous military experience, having served for six months in 1940 with the Dufferin and Haldimand Rifles Regiment in the non-permanent active militia, when he enlisted with the RCAF in Hamilton on August 31, 1942. The family moved to Simcoe and on May 14, 1943, son, John Douglas, was born.

He disembarked for the UK on October 16, 1943. He had hopes of returning home and working for the plow factory after the war. He was the mid-upper gunner of LW 682/M, and was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre 1940 with Palm (Belgium).

Related media

Second World War (1939 – 1945)

In the Books of Remembrance

Commemorated on:

Page 455 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance.
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GERAARDSBERGEN (GRAMMONT) COMMUNAL CEMETERY Belgium

The town of Geraardsbergen is located south of the town of Aalst on the N42. From the motorway E40/A10, which runs between Oostende and Brussels, turn off at junction 17 onto the N42, direction Geraardsbergen. Follow this road to the town of Geraardsbergen and the junction with the N493. Turn right onto the N493, direction Parike, and the cemetery is along here on the right. The graves are located towards the centre of the cemetery.

For more information, visit Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

 

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