Flying Officer Frank Wilfred Latham was born June 11th, 1916, to parents Frank & Edith Latham, of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Prior to his enlistment he was living in Trail, British Columbia, with his wife Jean and their two children Barbara and Dennis.
He enlisted in Calgary, Alberta, in the fall of 1942 with the Royal Canadian Air Force; with Frank on active service his family relocated back to Moose Jaw. Their third child, Gary Frank, was born in July of 1944 but died shortly thereafter in late October.
Latham was serving as a Wireless Operator/Air Gunner on anti-submarine patrol with the 162nd Squadron out of Iceland when on December 19th, 1944, in high winds and blinding snow their Canso aircraft (A #11061) crashed into a mountainside S.E. of Reykjavik, Iceland, killing all 8 crew members. He is buried in Reykjavik (Fossvogur) Cemetery, Iceland.
The collection includes a diary Jean Latham kept in their son Gary’s Our Baby’s Story book of his death in October of 1944, and of her husband’s less than two months later.
External links:
Flying Officer Latham's Service Record Information (Reg/Ser# J/41740) is available online through Library and Archives Canada.
Burial information is available at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
A memorial page honouring him can be visited online at the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.
