{"id":35397,"date":"2024-11-14T14:52:50","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T19:52:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=35397"},"modified":"2024-11-21T16:56:12","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T21:56:12","slug":"auroras-angels-project-pays-tribute-to-local-airmen-who-paid-ultimate-sacrifice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/auroras-angels-project-pays-tribute-to-local-airmen-who-paid-ultimate-sacrifice\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora’s Angels project pays tribute to local airmen who paid ultimate sacrifice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Aurora\u2019s Altar of Sacrifice has paid tribute to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for King and Country during the Second World War \u2013 but as poignant as this tribute is, it doesn\u2019t tell the full story of who these men were and where they served.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the past 18 months, local historian Christopher Watts of the Aurora Heritage Authority, has been hard at work shedding a light on those who took to the air as part of his Aurora\u2019s Angels project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last few weeks, you may have noticed striking banners along Yonge Street bearing the legend of Aurora\u2019s Angels, each featuring the name and portrait of an airman, just in time to close out the Centennial year of the Royal Canadian Air Force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a culmination of 18-months\u2019 work connecting with Aurora\u2019s past,\u201d said Watts. \u201cAurora has already observed and had a proclamation for the Centennial of the RCAF back in April. It was important to do so because for a Town of its size, Aurora boasts proportionately a high number of its citizens enter the service for the RCAF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome notable figures for this include former Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, whose nickname Mike was given to him by his flying instructor back in 1917. Secondly, Dick Illingworth, former Mayor of Aurora who needs no introduction continued on after serving as a navigator in the Ferry Command in the RCAF in World War 2 to actually be an Auxiliary Officer with the rank of Wing Commander. These are two individuals who were lucky enough to come home, but not all were.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Aurora\u2019s Angels project honours several homegrown RCAF members who were not so lucky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a saying you die twice \u2013 once when you stop breathing, the second when someone mentions your name for the last time,\u201d said Watts, determined to keep these names on the lips of Aurorans evermore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo those who were close to them, they\u2019re really known as friends, classmates, coworkers, brothers, fathers, sons and grandsons,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The name Aurora\u2019s Angels was inspired by just one such individual \u2013 Lloyd Chadburn, a famed airman who was bestowed the \u201cAngel\u201d nickname.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChadburn was a student at Aurora Public School who made and flew model planes around Town before he was able to join up with the RCAF,\u201d Watts explained. \u201cIt\u2019s surprising Chadburn\u2019s life hasn\u2019t been made into a movie. [He] was the first Auroran to obtain the rank of Pilot Officer and proceed overseas in World War 2. He was the first graduate of the Commonwealth Air Training Plant to be given control of a squadron, the youngest Squadron Leader in the RCAF at 21, first to destroy an e-boat with cannon fire, the first RCAF officer to be decorated with the Distinguished Service order twice and one of only four in history, and the RCAF officer to receive the highest French honour, the Croix de Guerre.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each of the featured Aurora\u2019s Angels have very different tales to tell, but all are united by their formative years in the community they called home, and some were even interconnected classmates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other honoured Angels include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Leslie Bradbury<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Harrison Cowieson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

George Alvin Davis<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donald Banbury Douglas<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric Walter Folliott<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burton Dix Howard<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harry Leslie Kay<\/p>\n\n\n\n

William David King<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perry King<\/p>\n\n\n\n

William Donald Pagan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robert Mons Rumble<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jack Turp<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reginald Herbert Wade<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their legacy was celebrated at an art installation hosted at Aurora\u2019s Royal Rose Gallery, curated by Watts, which culminated in a gathering on Saturday afternoon, which included a walking tour of the Yonge Street banners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project\u2019s legacy will live on through a new partnership with the No Stone Left Alone initiative that helps engage Canadian students with wartime gravesites at home and abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re preparing kits to engage local schools for similar efforts here at home and in the years ahead,\u201d said Watts, noting the work undertaken by Aurora\u2019s Angels has led to author Rob Forbes rewriting his biography of Chadburn in the book, \u201cGone is the Angel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Efforts between Watts and Forbes are also afoot to nominate Chadburn for induction to Canada\u2019s Aviation Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aurora\u2019s Altar of Sacrifice has paid tribute to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for King and Country during the Second World War \u2013 but as poignant as this tribute is, it doesn\u2019t tell the full story of who these men were and where they served. For the past 18 months, local historian Christopher Watts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":35398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/2024-11-14-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9cV","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-20 13:39:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35397"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35399,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35397\/revisions\/35399"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}