Camp Borden was the home of a Royal Canadian Air Force station in 1939. Early in 1940, the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan designated the Base as the Service Flying Training School. The flight path for pilot training often passed over West Gwillimbury — with results that, at least twice, were tragic.
In late July 1940, two Tiger Moth training planes flew southeast from Base Borden. One pilot was to “fly blind,” relying only on instrumentation. The other would follow, monitoring the flight. But 20 minutes after leaving Borden, the plane that was being flown “under the hood,” or blind, suddenly lost altitude and crashed into forested land on Concession 13. The other pilot was able to land safely in a nearby field, where the pilot observed the crash, and ran for help, notifying Base Borden of the crash. The first pilot, 22-year-old Francis Devlin, was killed.
At 1 p.m. on March 31, 1941, two Avro Anson aircraft from No. 31 Air Navigation School (Port Albert) — one yellow, one combat black-and-green — approached Bond Head. Witnesses observed the planes apparently on a collision course. The darker-coloured aircraft attempted to take evasive action at the last minute but clipped the tail section of the yellow plane. The pilot of the yellow plane lost control and nose-dived, hitting the ground. The plane disintegrated, killing all on board. The darker aircraft, which lost part of its right wing tip, rolled and crashed upside down in the snow. Two of four people on board survived the initial crash, but one airman died on the way to hospital. Seven died in the collision over Bond Head. The sole survivor, J.L. Flower from Hampshire, England, was killed in action during the Second World War in 1943.
It wasn’t the only Avro Anson crash in West Gwillimbury, but not every crash ended in tragedy. In May of 1944, an Avro left No. 33 Air Navigation School in Mount Hope with five men on board – and as they flew over Bradford, engine trouble caused the pilot to make an emergency landing. The marshland between the east and west branches of the Holland River, across from Concession 10, looked like an open meadow at night, and the plane came down – damaging the propeller and undercarriage. The five men stayed aboard the plane until daybreak, then inflated a rubber raft and paddled towards Bradford – where they startled fishermen preparing to head out for a day on Cook’s Bay. Base Borden was contacted, and Bradford resident Ben Collings was asked to provide transportation, bringing a group from Base Borden to the crash site, and then transporting the plane by scow to Bradford Marina, where curious residents had the opportunity to take a good look.
And in the winter of 1940, an airman in training at Base Borden was flying a Fairey Battle plane that ran out of gas over Cook’s Bay. Keeping the wheels up, the pilot landed on the ice – damaging the propeller. A crew of four came out to repair the plane, and boarded with the Neilly family, whose son Scott was taking flying training at Borden. Sam Neilly and his father drove a team and sleigh to Keswick to pick up the new propeller, and the crew winched the plane up, carried out the repairs and shoveled a path on the ice – allowing the plane to take off and return to Base.
Sources: Governor Simcoe Slept Here: The Legacy of West Gwillimbury, as recorded by author Bob Sturgeon, and Sam Neilly. The fatal Bond Head crash is mentioned in the Bradford West Gwillimbury Public Library Archives.
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