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World War Two Roll of Honour

Flight Sergeant John Douglas Baird
February 10, 1943
150 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force
Service Number R/92477
Dely Ibrahim War Cemetery, Algeria. Age 27
Son of W.A. and I. Baird, Chilliwack, B.C.

Douglas Baird was a lad with an endless stream of energy and good humour, "full of spirit and decency and the zest of living." Douglas took a leading role in Chilliwack athletics, actively participating in lacrosse, golf, basketball and softball as well as managing the “Valleys” basketball team for two years. He was also the past president of the Lewa Club. In March 1941, he joined the R.C.A.F. with his friend, Harvey Weeks, with whom he also trained. Graduating as an air gunner, Douglas went overseas in March 1942, and was posted to North Africa serving with 150 Squadron, equipped with Wellington bombers. On February 10, 1943, the Wellington aircraft in which he was flying was hit by enemy fire and crashed upon returning to base. Flight Sergeant Baird died of his injuries at 96 General Hospital, near Algiers. At the time of his death Douglas was believed to have made almost 20 operational trips over Germany and German‑occupied countries.

 

Private Leo Lawrence Bedard
July 8, 1944
Highland Light Infantry of Canada
Service Number L/34014. Original Unit of Service - #4 Employment Platoon, Military District 12
Beny‑Sur‑Mer Canadian War Cemetery, France. Age 24
Son of Napoleon and Thora Bedard.
Husband of Doris Matilda Bedard, Barnes, Surrey, England.

Leo Bedard was born at Haywarden, Saskatchewan. He attended Generoy School in French Flats, enjoyed hunting and worked on a farm in Davidson, Saskatchewan. Leo originally joined the Regina Rifle Regiment in 1939. He was killed July 8, 1944 when serving with the Highland Light Infantry of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division. Although Leo never lived in Chilliwack his family moved to the area after the war. He is also commemorated on a memorial in Dundern, Saskatchewan.

 

Pilot Officer George Robert Berkey
April 23, 1944
405 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force
Service Number C/85532
Conde‑sur‑Aisne Communal Cemetery, France. Age 22
Son of George Dewey and Martha W. Berkey, New Westminster, B.C.

In 1922, George Berkey was born ten miles south of Herbert, Saskatchewan. He first attended school at Wicke, Saskatchewan and in 1934 the family moved to Chilliwack. Following public school at Robertson and Chilliwack Elementary Schools, he graduated from Chilliwack High School in June 1940. During his school years, George worked as a caddy at Meadowlands golf course and operated a paper route on Fairfield Island. At the First Baptist Church he worked as a janitor. George Berkey joined the R.C.A F. in 1940 and trained at Rivers, Manitoba. He went overseas in 1941 and became a flight engineer. George served with 405 Squadron on several missions against the heavily defended German capital city, Berlin. He failed to return from a mission against Laon, France, on April 23, 1944, when the Lancaster that he was flying in crashed. In 1946 George Berkey Sr. received his son's R.C.A.F. engineer's wing.

Lieutenant Henry Edward Boutroy
September 17, 1940
Royal Engineers
Attached 1st Battalion, The Princess Louise's Kensington Regiment,
The Middlesex Regiment
Kensington (Hanwell) Cemetery, Ealing, Middlesex, England. Age Unknown
Husband of Eileen Boutroy, Chilliwack, B.C.

Henry Edward Boutroy served with the British Army’s Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry and the 11th Battalion Machine Gun Corps during the First World War. Upon arrival in Chilliwack Henry Boutroy, became an East Chilliwack farmer living at 621 Prairie Central Road. He married his wife Eileen in Chilliwack November 19, 1928 and together they had a son Mervyn. Prior to the Second World War he joined the Westminster Regiment and upon the outbreak of WWII he rejoined the British Army and served in France in June 1940. He was evacuated from St. Nazaire aboard an old freighter and a letter outlining his part in the fighting during the Fall of France was published in the Chilliwack Progress, (31 July, 1940. p. 8). On his return to the United Kingdom he transferred to the machine gun battalion of the Middlesex Regiment. Although the circumstances of his death are not known, Henry Boutroy died of wounds September 17, 1940.

Flight Lieutenant Francis Thomas Sargent Brice
June 13, 1944
408 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force
Service Number J/23221
Canada Cemetery, Tilloy‑Les‑Cambrai, France. Age 25
Son of S. Leslie and Frances H. Brice, Chilliwack, B.C.

In 1936 Tom Brice served with the British Merchant Marine. In the Chilliwack Progress September 30, 1936 a story of his initial journey appears in which he shares his initial experiences. He sailed aboard the Wentworth, from Chemainus on May 15th. He journeyed from Panama to Antwerp and joined the Oakworth which set out for the Black Sea. As they approached Gibraltar he saw the shelling of the Moroccan coast by Spanish warships during that nation’s civil war. The Oakworth carried on to the Dardenelles where Tom Brice visited the war memorials and graves of soldiers lost at Gallipoli. Afterwards the vessel made its way to Nicolaieff, a Russian port where they loaded pig iron. Brice commented “Nicolaieff is 74 miles up the Bug River from the Black Sea, and yet the river is possibly twice the width of the Fraser at New Westminster.” The ship was then to sail for Japan, Vladivostok, the East Indies and Rotterdam.

Tom Brice subsequently turned to the technical phase of aviation and joined Vickers Aviation Limited in England as an apprentice. However, early in the war he returned to Canada and worked at aircraft production in various eastern Canadian plants. Tom was trained as an inspector of aircraft and worked as a civilian with the R.C.A.F. at DeHaviland Aircraft Works, No. 1 Manning Pool and No. 12 Technical Detachment in Toronto, Ontario. Upon the death of his only brother, Pilot Officer Vincent Brice, January 15, 1942, Tom joined the R.C.A.F., although he was colour blind, and was trained as a pilot. When serving with 408 Bomber Squadron Tom Brice was lost on a mission, June 13, 1944, against Cambrai, France. The aircraft was shot down by a German night fighter and crashed at Tilloy-les-Cambrai. R.C.A.F. members of the crew who were killed were Flying Officer A. Glendenning, Pilot Officer M.J. MacDonald, Warrant Officer II H.W. Wilson and Sergeants E.G. Todd and J.A. Bergeron. R.A.F. crew members killed were Pilot Officer J.G. Gray and Flight Sergeant A. Mahon.

His father Leslie Brice donated the Brice Memorial Trophy, in memory of his two sons, and awarded to the Chilliwack-Hope District Boy Scout for the highest number of achievement points earned in a given year by a local pack.

Pilot Officer Vincent Leslie Brice
January 15, 1942
10 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force
Service Number J/15860
Leeming (St. John the Baptist) Churchyard, Exelby, England. Age 21
Son of Mr. and Mrs. S. Leslie Brice, Chilliwack, B.C.

'Vin' Brice was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Leslie Brice. Vincent's father was the clerk of the Township of Chilliwhack, a member of the Chilliwack Airport Board and a member of the B.C. Aviation Council. Vincent was educated at schools in Chilliwack and graduated from Vancouver Technical School. During his early years he was an active member of cubs and scouts and became a member of the Cultus Lake Yacht Club. An accomplished sailor Vincent and his dinghy, the Una B captured many honours. Vincent was interested in radio and was an active camping enthusiast and member of St. Thomas Church. He enlisted in the R.C.A.F. in July 1940 and proceeded overseas in January 1941. As a wireless operator, Vincent, served with 10 Squadron, stationed at Leeming, Yorkshire.  He took part on the raid against two German battleships, the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, both undergoing repairs at Brest. Vincent was killed January 15, 1942, when his Halifax aircraft, L 9622, crashed one mile north of Northallerton, Yorkshire. Other members of the crew killed were Sergeants T. Cowan, H.K. Taylor, and J.C. Bradley of the R.A.F., Pilot Officer M. Von Dadelszen R.N.Z.A.F., and Flight Sergeant D. Savage R.C.A.F. Sergeant M.S. Schneider R.C.A.F. suffered severe head injuries. Vincent’s brother, Flight Lieutenant Francis Thomas Sargent Brice, was killed June 13, 1944.

His father Leslie Brice donated the Brice Memorial Trophy, in memory of his two sons, and awarded to the Chilliwack-Hope District Boy Scout for the highest number of achievement points earned in a given year by a local pack.

 

Flight Sergeant Peter Edwin Elkford Brown
February 13, 1943
458 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force
Service Number R/92308
Malta (Capuccini) Naval Cemetery, Malta. Age 32
Son of Peter John and Gladys Beatrice Baron Brown, Chilliwack, B.C.

Peter J. Brown, Chilliwack's City Clerk was informed of his son's death, February 15, 1943. Peter Brown Junior was educated in Chilliwack and enjoyed golf and badminton. He worked for B.C. Electric for 12 years in the capacity of clerk, meter reader and collector. In March 1941 he enlisted in the R.C.A.F. and was trained at a bombing and gunnery school at Mossbank, Saskatchewan. Peter went overseas as a wireless air gunner in February 1942. He joined 458 Squadron a Royal Australian Air Force unit and it was with this unit that he was killed. On February 13, 1943 the Wellington bomber in which he was flying overshot their landing, on Malta, because of engine trouble. The aircraft crashed and caught fire in a quarry close to Luqa aerodrome.

 

Second Lieutenant Reginald Harry Brown
June 26, 1944
General List, Australian Army
Service Number 225870
Singapore Memorial, Singapore. Age 26
Son of Alfred F. and Pansy J. Brown, Cariboo, B.C.

Reg Brown graduated from Chilliwack High School and went on to the University of British Columbia. After completing Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture (B.S.A.) in 1940 he was unable to find work in British Columbia and went to Malaysia where he managed a rubber tree plantation. Shortly after his arrival the Japanese forces attacked and he joined the Australian army. Captured he was held as a prisoner of war on one of the Dutch islands occupied by Japanese forces. He was killed when the P.O.W. vessel on which he was in was attacked and sunk by Allied bombers June 26, 1944.

 

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