Pilot Officer Lloyd Wesley Cuming was born in Kipling, Saskatchewan on June 9, 1918, to parents Gilbert Edwin and Sarah Adeline (née Callin) Cuming.

After completing his initial thirty-days training with the Winnipeg Light Infantry in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, in November/December of 1940, Cuming was working as bank clerk the time of his enlistment with the R.C.A.F. in Regina, Saskatchewan, on August 1, 1941. After training in Canada he proceeded to England in April of 1943 where he was attached to 61 Squadron of the British Royal Air Force, serving as a Bomb Aimer.

On a mission over Germany on January 27, 1944, the Lancaster #DV 400 on which Cuming was flying went missing. It was later determined that it had collided with another Lancaster. Cuming was reburied at the Hanover War Cemetery (also known as the Limmer War Cemetery), Hanover, Germany. The initial burial locations of the crew members killed was uncertain until after the war.

Content notes:
The collection’s letter was written by Lloyd’s mother, Sarah Cuming, to her friend Miss J. Eira Williams. (Williams was also a correspondent in the CLIP Collections of Wren Margaret Chesney, Cpl. Eunice Frances Davies, and L.A.W. Jean Isabel Turner.)

External links:
Pilot Officer Lloyd Wesley Cuming’s service record (Serv/Reg#s J87849; R116184) 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 Cumming can be visited online at the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.