Eric Morgan Finn was born in December 1920, the son of Arthur and Hilda Finn of Toronto, He enlisted with the RCAF and served in Newfoundland as part of a Liberator crew engaged in anti-submarine activity. Finn was on his way home for leave on Liberator Harry when it crashed in Quebec on October 20, 1943, killing all twenty four on board. It remains the worst accident in Canadian military aviation history. The collection currently consists of one letter written by Finn and two photographs.
Title
WWII
These collections contains all materials relating to Canadian from 1939 to 1945. Some individual collections may contain materials beyond this time frame. External links in collection descriptions are to casualty and burial information at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Sydney Thomas Fisher was from Victoria, British Columbia. Fisher joined the RCAF, was attached to 35 Squadron RAF, and was shot down on September 15, 1941, and remained a prisoner of war until the end of the war. The collection currently consists of his correspondence both before and during his time as a POW, as well as clippings and other miscellaneous items.
John Ernest Fitzgerald, DFM, was born on January 27, 1925, the son of John and Effie Fitzgerald of New Westminster, British Columbia. Fitzgerald served as a Flight Sergeant in the Royal Canadian Air Force. He was killed August 27, 1944 when his Lancaster was shot down. Fitzgerald and all the crew members are buried in Denmark. The collection consists of more than forty letters, twelve photographs, telegrams, and other personal items.
External links:
Flight Sergeant John Ernest Fitzgerald’s service record (Serv/Reg# R215210) can be viewed/downloaded in pdf format through Library and Archives Canada.
Burial information is available at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
A memorial page honouring Fitzgerald can be visited online at the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.
More information about the crash in which Fitzgerald was killed can be found on the Danish site dedicated to Fallen Allied Airmen www.airmen.dk.
Joseph ("Jo") Forman served overseas with the Royal Canadian Air Force as a navigator. Forman and his crew were shot down over France on July 25, 1944, during a mission. Forman survived and returned to Canada at the end of the war. The collection currently consists of an extended memoir of his time with the R.C.A.F.
Donald McPherson Fraser, MC, was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, on October 3, 1912. His family had immigrated to Canada. He joined the Canadian army in 1939, with the Rocky Mountain Rangers. He spent the first part of the war in the Canadian army, until the British loss at Dunkirk . Donald then became one of the CanLoan officers lent to the British Army by Canada in an effort to refill the British officer ranks. Donald served with the Duke of Wellington regiment and subsequently with the Welsh Borderers; both units part of the 49th Polar Bear Division. He took part in the D-Day invasion and was wounded in the early days of that action, but returned to active service by July 1944, when he won the Military Cross. During his service with the British Army Donald received two battlefield promotions, being discharged with the rank of Major. He married and had four children after the war, spending the rest of his life in British Columbia. He settled in Nanaimo, where he lived until his passing in 1997. This collection consists of one photograph and a number of personal items.
Joseph Mack Freeman was born in March, 1909 in Innisfail, Alberta. Freeman joined the army in 1941 and returned to Canada in August, 1945. He died in Didsbury, Alberta in October, 1953. The collection consists of his scrapbook of photographs, postcards, and clippings from his time in the army.
