RAF Commands Database
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Library and Archives Canada Service Files (may not exist)
Birkdale Cemetery, UK
Avro Anson
Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum
The Museum's Anson Mk. V was built by MacDonald Brothers in Winnipeg in 1944. It flew with No. 7 Photographic Wing and No. 414 Squadron in Ottawa on photo survey work until the late 1940s. In 1956, it was purchased by INCO and used for mineral surveying until 1980, when it was donated to the Museum. The exterior is painted in the yellow colour common to all BCATP trainers and is in its same wartime RCAF markings.
The Avro Anson was known by a number of nicknames including "Faithful Annie" or "Flying Greenhouse". It was the first aircraft to be flown by the Royal Canadian Air Force to have a retractable undercarriage, which was a comparative novelty in 1936. In 1940, a Canadian government owned company, Federal Aircraft Limited, was created in Montreal to manufacture the Anson for Canadian use. Nearly 3,000 Anson aircraft were produced and, in the early days of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), the Anson was the standard trainer for many pilots, observers (navigators), wireless operators and bomb aimers. More than 20,000 aircrew received training on the Anson. In Canadian service, the aircraft was substantially re-designed with the substitution of North American engines and many other airframe and equipment changes. Harold Skaarup web pages
Harold A Skaarup Web Page
Avro Anson HistoryCASPIR Aircraft Groups:
RCAF On Strength (4404), RCAF 400 Squadron (6), Canadian Aircraft Losses (257)Anson Mk. l N4902
Crashed on the Isle of Man, UK on 1942-08-19. Was being piloted by Flight Sergeant Robert Jones, RCAF. Pilot Officer John Roland Heaton, RAF; Sergeant Kenneth Leonard Pickard, RAF; Sergeant Geoffrey Quarmby; RAF and Sergeant Dudley Thomas Wilson, RAF were all killed.
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