Birth Date: 1922-December-09
Born:
Parents: Sidney John & Muriel Phyllis Coward
Spouse: Helen Mae Coward, of Barrie, Ontario.
Home: Regina, Saskatchewan (parents)
Enlistment:
Enlistment Date: unkown date
Service
RCAF
Unit
1 SFTS- Service Flying Training School
Base
RCAF Stn. Camp Borden, Ontario
Rank
Warrant Officer 1st Class
Position
Pilot
Service Numbers
R/107881
Took off from Camp Borden on a routine training flight.
Aircraft crashed and burned three miles north-west of Phelpston, Ontario after hitting some trees.
Killed includes Coward: Sergeant Kenneth Edward Thomson, RAF, KIFA, Barrie Union Cemetery, Barrie, Ontario - Lot 125. Block A. Sergeant Ralph Edmund Hollingsworth Wood, RAF, KIFA, Glenwood Cemetery, Picton, Ontario - Block N1. Plot 543. Grave 1.
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
Graduates of the EFTS "learn-to-fly" program went on a Service Flying Training School (SFTS) for 16 weeks. For the first 8 weeks the trainee was part of an intermediate training squadron; for the next 6 weeks an advanced training squadron and for the final 2 weeks training was conducted at a Bombing & Gunnery School. The Service schools were military establishments run by the RCAF or the RAF.
There were two different types of Service Flying Training Schools. Trainees in the fighter pilot stream went to an SFTS like No. 14 Aylmer, where they trained in the North American Harvard or North American Yale. Trainees in the bomber, coastal or transport pilot stream went to an SFTS like No. 5 Brantford where they learned multi-engine technique in an Airspeed Oxford, Avro Anson or Cessna Crane.
Currently the site of CFB Borden. Heliport and grass strip remains. CYBN
For more Information on RCAF Station Borden see here
RCAF.info - RCAF Station Borden Ontario
RCAF.info - Relief Landing Field Edenvale Ontario
Regina, Saskatchewan (parents)
School Daily Diary Entry - 1944-11-11
Canadian Virtual War Memorial
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
www.findagrave.com
Harold A Skaarup Web Page
Avro Anson History