71 The Royal Canadian Legion MANITOBA & NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO COMMAND www.mbnwo.ca FERRIS, Thomas A. “Tom” WWII Tom was born on July 25, 1917, and was raised on a farm in Holland, Manitoba. After high school, he went to Winnipeg for administrative training and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force as a Pilot recruit in 1940. Manning Depot training was conducted in Brandon. He took his primary flying training on Tiger Moths in Virden, MB. During his training in November 1941, he was involved in a mid-air collision upon landing with another training aircraft. He was seriously injured and hospitalized for six months. Once recovered, he continued his training and graduated in April 1942. He proceeded to Pennfield Ridge, NB for operational training as a, Sgt Pilot, flying the twin engine Ventura Bomber. He and his crew crossed the Atlantic on the Queen Mary troop ship in early 1943 and conducted bombing missions from RAF Station Feltwell. On his seventh bombing mission of the U-boat pens on the coast of France, his aircraft was blown out of formation by ground fired flak. In July 1943, he took the Queen Mary back to Canada to train new Ventura pilots in Pennfield Ridge. He took leave that year in October to marry Mary Harrison and bring her to the Maritimes. He completed his wartime and peacetime service, flying Dakota aircraft out of RCAF Dartmouth Nova Scotia, taking release in 1946. He received the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal Tom returned to Manitoba, settling in Brandon and raising a family of four children. He passed away in 2008. FERRIS, Walter Harold WWII Harold was born on June 24, 1921, and was raised on a farm in Holland, Manitoba. He trained at No. 3 W.S.F.S. Wireless School in Winnipeg and No. 3 Bombing and Gunnery in MacDonald, Manitoba as a Wireless Air Gunner. He was assigned to 608 Squadron RAF. On January 27, 1944, his Hudson Bomber failed to return from submarine patrol off the coast of Sicily. In May 1944, his body was recovered at Sidi, Barrani and buried in a shallow temporary grave near the Mediterranean Sea. A storm with high waves washed his body back out to sea. He is commemorated on the Malta Memorial. Only service members whose bodies were never recovered are allowed on the memorial. Ferris Bay on the north shore of Stephens Lake was named after him in 1982. Walter’s medals include the 1939-1945 Star, Italy Star, War Medal 19391945 and Canadian Volunteer Service Medal and Clasp.
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