Documenting the WWII Fallen of Toronto's Elementary Schools
Wallace Victor John Burdis
Wallace Burdis was born July 10, 1924, the only child of Clement (“Clem”) Burdis and Ivy Doris Abbett Mason, who was born in Farnborough, Kent, England in 1902. Clem was born in Wandsworth, England, near London in 1898 and arrived in Canada with his older brother John in 1908 as British Home Children. Some of the Home children were orphans, while others, like the Burdis boys, came from destitute families. Their father had died, leaving their mother with five children. The Home Children were taken in by rural Canadian families, went to school and were taught skills or trades. It was thought that the program provided the children with a better life than they could have experienced in Britain. Clem and John's eight year old sister Louisa arrived the next year, sponsored by the same woman in Stratford, Ontario as the brothers had been. Clem and his brother were settled on farms in western Ontario. Clem enlisted in the First World War in November 1915 and was gassed in France two years later. He met Ivy and they married in Medway, Kent in 1919, the same year Clem was discharged in England. This was unusual as Canadian soldiers were usually discharged after they returned to Canada. Within 18 months Clem and Ivy arrived in western Ontario, farming in Bentinck, Ontario, several kilometres north of Durham. The couple had a daughter who died four days after birth. By the time Wallace was born, they had settled in Toronto and Clem became a salesman for Canada Bread. Clem was also a Freemason, a member of the Waverley Lodge that met in a store on Balsam Avenue near Kingston Road.
In September 1925, Wallace won first in his class at the Broadview Boys Fair Baby Show (bottom left corner).
The Toronto Daily Star, September 21, 1925.
Wallace suffered two accidents as a child. When he was 6 he was knocked out for a few minutes when he fell from a car and when he was 8, his right hand and forearm became caught in a washing machine wringer but he healed within three weeks. He had two nicknames – Buzz and Punch.
Although the family isn't mentioned often in the Toronto City Directories, Wallace claimed on his RCAF attestation papers that he attended Norway school. In 1926 the family lived for a year at 76A Kippendavie Avenue. His parents divorced and his mother remarried a George Spencer, a man who had at least three children and Ivy gave birth to three more children, Victor, Brent and Joan. Wallace must have been living in the Spencer household in the Norway neighbourhood. His father remarried in 1932 and his new wife was Mabel Catherine Jones. The couple eventually lived at 38 Monarch Park Avenue in the 1940s while Wallace's mother moved around the Norway neighbourhood. After leaving Norway in 1938, Wallace studied at Danforth Tech until 1941. He left when he was offered a job as a machinist/lathe operator for David A. McCowan at 79-81 Main Street. He liked to play tennis and rugby and build model airplanes. During his school years he was a cadet with the 48th Highlanders, his father's battalion. When the Second World War began, Clem rejoined the active militia and was a Company Quartermaster Sergeant in the 48th Highlanders, most likely fighting with them in Sicily and Italy.
Wallace always wanted to fly and joined the Air Force in October 1942 He received his pilot's wings at Brandon, Manitoba in January 1944 where his instructor noted that he was “very cool headed and reliable.” He returned to Toronto for his embarkation leave and spent time with both his parents, buying a bike for his little sister Joan. His mother later claimed in a letter that Wallace had a girlfriend he planned to marry when he returned from the war.
Wallace reported to No. 2 Advanced Ground Training School on February 12 in Quebec City where he went through infantry training and on March 15 he arrived in Halifax to await a ship to Britain. All available Canadian military personnel were being sent to Britain, as the D-Day invasion was weeks away. Wallace finally shipped out at the end of April, arriving in Britain on May 7. He trained on Spitfires for almost a year and on April 12, 1945 he joined the 403 Squadron, the first RCAF squadron to be formed overseas. They were stationed in Goch, Germany, on the border with the Netherlands. The next day the Squadron moved 110 miles (180 km) northwest to Diepholz, Germany, taking over an airfield which had been abandoned by the Germans. They slept in tents. On the 16th, Wallace wrote the following letter to his father, who was at this time a Sergeant Major with the 48th Highlanders in Northwestern Europe:
Supermarine Spitfire. Imperial War Museum photo.
Below, from https://rcaf403squadron.wordpress.com is a photo of Wallace from Walter Neil Dove's photo album during this time in Germany. Wallace is on the right. The airmen are clowning around with a German helmet.
April 1945, Germany. From https://rcaf403squadron.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/setting-up-camp/
On the 15th, 16th and 17th, the Squadron flew armed reconnaissance. Wallace joined the others in the air. On the 17th, the Spitfires took off on more reconnaissance. They encountered enemy aircraft, gave chase and lost them in cloud and smoke haze over Hamburg. The Spitfires came under heavy anti-aircraft fire, so the group headed for base but several were low on fuel. About eight miles from the airfield, Wallace radioed to say that he had two gallons of fuel left but suddenly his engine stopped. His flight leader told him to make a crash landing in a field as he was too low to parachute out. Wallace's Spitfire stalled as he tried to land and he crashed. He did not survive. He had served with his unit for only five days.
From 403 Squadron operations book:
Tuesday, April 17, 1945
J40853 F/O W.V.J. Burdis was killed as a result of injuries received when he crash-landed just about eight miles N.E. of here. Just his third trip with the Squadron, and really rough luck.
Wednesday, April 18, 1945
F/O Burdis was buried today in the civil cemetery near here, with a representation of the Squadron pilots present.
Wallace is buried in Hanover War Cemetery.
The Toronto Star, February 24, 1947.
Clem had a third wife, Alice Gertrude Hutchinson, when he died in Hamilton in 1982. Ivy was living at 122 Golfview Avenue until the late 1950s.