101 The Royal Canadian Legion MANITOBA & NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO COMMAND www.mbnwo.ca DAVIDSON, Roy WWII Roy was born on August 13, 1916, to George and Mary Davidson in Neepawa, Manitoba. He received his education there and worked as a gas station attendant at the Co-op. Roy enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force and took his training in Mossbank, Saskatchewan and Calgary, Alberta in 1940. In June 1941, he graduated from the Wireless Air Gunner School #2 W.A.G., with the rank of Sergeant and was briefly posted to McDonald Air Base. He was then posted to England in September 1941 to continue his training. Roy’s active service began in May 1942 when his plane took part in a 1000 plane attack on Germany. Their Hampden Aircraft was severely damaged by light flak when returning from operations on June 20, 1942. The plane lost its landing gear and during the emergency landing, all the airmen suffered injuries. Roy was the only member to succumb the next day following leg amputation in the RAF sick quarters at Waddington, Lincolnshire. Roy married his high school sweetheart Arleigh Florence Sewell on September 26, 1940. He was killed in action on June 21, 1942 and was buried with full honours in the St. Michael’s Churchyard in Waddington, Lincolnshire, England. DEAKIN, Arthur Keelinge WWII Arthur was born on October 12, 1917, to Guy and Janey Deakin in Franklin, Manitoba just west of Neepawa. He received his education at Franklin and Iroquois Schools and was later employed at the Bank of Commerce in Powell Riber, British Columbia. He worked there until enlisting in World War II. In 1941, Arthur joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. He served with the #407 Demon Squadron and in 1944 he went missing on a training mission on a Wellington Aircraft #627 over the North Sea, northwest of Ireland. There were also six other crew members killed in the same incident. Arthur was posthumously awarded the RCAF Operational Wings in recognition of his gallant service against the enemy. He saw service in Britain, Gibraltar, and Algiers, North Africa. Arthur was killed in action on November 13, 1944 and the body was never found. He has no known grave. His name is inscribed on the Runnymede War Memorial, Englefield Green, Surrey, England. The following is an excerpt taken from Flying Officer Arthur K. Deakin’s diary describing Southampton in early 1942. I caught the 10:30 Royal Blue Coach to Southampton which for the price of four shillings took me through the New Forest and some pretty country, leaving me at Grove Square at about noon. I started a tour of the town on foot. The damage in some parts is colossal and it may be an exaggeration to say one out of every four dwellings was now occupied (and this is a cross section of the town). St. Mary’s Church was bombed completely. The four walls and arches and altar remain. I went in and it is sights like these that make one realize the complete devastation that had been wrought in these parts. A tombstone in the adjoining churchyard bore the date 1660, verifying antiquity of the church and parish. I walked on. The railway yards did not appear to have suffered so heavily. A great portion of the docks was not approachable. Nowhere are there windows and in one long deserted street I saw one woman emerge from a basement. I counted ten shelters in a public park and no less than 30 barrage balloons over the town. That portion of the dock which I did not see and which contains the southeastern bastions of the old wall (a massive stone structure which defied a French attack by gun powder – probably one of the first times it was used – as long ago as 1459 now is in hideous shambles. The wreckage has been cleared of the streets but the wrecking crews were still visible cleaning up and for blocks, hardly a building stands. One large business house, gutted by fire and with only half the walls left, had rather ironically I thought, a notice over the front door which read: “To be sold or Let”. It had missed the flames (8 January 1942).
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