The 79th anniversary of the Battle of Britain will be observed on Sunday, September 15, 2019.
A national ceremony will be held at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa, Ontario,
and local ceremonies will take place across Canada.
On September 3, 1939, only hours after Britain declared war on Germany, a Westland Wallace biplane of the Royal Air Force (RAF) Air Observer School at Wigtown encountered thick fog and blundered into a Scottish hillside, killing Pilot Officer Ellard Alexander Cummings, 23, of Ottawa and his British gunner. Cummings had been commissioned in the RAF on May 7, 1938. He was a member of an unusual group: Canadians who had enlisted directly in the Royal Air Force (CAN/RAF). He was also the first Canadian to die on active service during the war.
The challenge: Defining “Canadian” before 1947
It is difficult to determine the number of wartime CAN/RAF personnel, in large measure because the definition of “Canadian” is inexact; Canadian citizenship did not exist until 1947 and various authors have been flexible in compiling lists. If place of birth were the only criteria, then Percival Stanley (Stan) Turner would be British, but his youthful education, upbringing and post-war RCAF service undeniably qualify him as Canadian, notwithstanding membership in the RAF between 1939 and 1945.
To demonstrate the intricacies of national origins, consider the following. Richard Howley appeared in a 1974 list as being from Victoria, British…
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