253 www.on.legion.ca ONTARIO COMMAND HUNTER, Duncan Williamson Duncan was born in Glasgow, Scotland on April 7, 1922. He enlisted in the Air Force on September 19, 1940. He served in Canada, Germany, France and England during World War II. He served as an investigator and reporter for the WWII Canadian War Crimes Trials in Bad Salzuflen, Germany. He received the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal and Clasp and the France and Germany Star. Duncan was discharged on June 5, 1946. He came to Toronto in 1929 until 1947. Duncan died on January 3, 2004 in Calgary after forty years with Imperial Oil. HUTCHINSON, Rowan Theodore Rowan was born in Toronto in 1917. After Upper Canada College and Queen’s, he enlisted in the RCAF in 1940. He was posted overseas to 401 Squadron and in 1942 to 414 Squadron (Sarnia Imperials) based at Croydon, Surrey flying Mustangs and Spitfires. Rowan spent six years in the RCAF, receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1943 and promoted to Squadron Leader in 1944. His duties included reconnaissance, strafing, defensive patrols, attacks on military infrastructure and escorts. One assignment, in June 1943, entailed escorting a naval vessel disguised as a fishing boat on a mission in the Channel. Rowan and flying mate, Larry Doherty, were ambushed by three Focke-Wulfs. Doherty spotted them and alerted Rowan, but was too late to save himself and was shot down. Rowan fought the planes off and credited his friend Doherty with saving his life. On D-Day, Rowan, now commanding 414 Squadron, spotted targets for naval bombardment of coastal defences. The ensuing days included photography of Luftwaffe airfields. Postwar, Rowan settled in New Liskeard. A prominent businessman, he also sat on the board of Northern Telephone. He married Rosemary Kerr of Montreal in 1948. The couple had three children. Rowan passed away on June 26, 2003. HUTCHINSON (KERR), Rosemary Catherine “Rosie” Rosemary was born on July 4, 1921 in Montreal, Quebec and attended Trafalgar School and then Branksome Hall in Toronto. In 1942, she enlisted in the RCAF, Women’s Division, Motor Transportation Section and was posted to Torbay, Newfoundland. At RCAF Torbay Rosie drove ambulances, trucks, chauffeured the “Brass” and helped lay flarepaths for returning convoy escorts. Early in 1944, Rosie was posted to HQ RCAF Bomber Command inYorkshire, England and subsequently to London, driving officers and delivering documents, narrowly escaping a V1 rocket that exploded two minutes away. She was discharged on March 19, 1946. In 1948, Rosie married Rowan Hutchinson (Squadron Leader, RCAF) and after living in Montreal and Toronto they settled in New Liskeard, Ontario, raising three children. Rosie wrote stories of her wartime experiences that were published in Legion Magazine and collected, with the work of other authors, in the Legion’s ‘True Canadian War Stories’. From a near disaster dumping Torbay Station’s garbage from a truck on a Newfoundland cliff to an evening out in London with severely burned young officers, her narratives were, on the surface, light-hearted and often funny, but did not hide the tragedies and heartbreak she had witnessed. Rosie passed away in January 2017.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM0NTk1OA==