Documenting the WWII Fallen of Toronto's Elementary Schools
Crawford Lee Johnston
(Lee is erroneously listed on Norway’s Honour Roll with his uncle Walter Ferguson’s first name.)
Lee Johnston's mother Elizabeth Margaret Ferguson was born in 1891 or 1893 and came from a Toronto family that lived in the Beach. Her father James was a carpenter, born in Ballear, Northern Ireland. Lee’s father, Frank Lee Johnston, was born in either 1894 or 1898 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. His father was a justice of the peace and a master coach builder. The Johnstons moved to Toronto when Frank Lee was a child. F. Lee, as he was known, served in the Canadian Army in the First World War, seeing action in France. He was given a medical discharge in December 1916 due to chronic bronchitis.
F. Lee and Elizabeth married on December 6, 1919 at St. John's Norway church. When Lee was born on March 30, 1921, the couple were living in an apartment in 16 Brookmount Road but they soon moved to Windsor. His father became a prominent advertising and public relations executive across the border in Detroit, commuting daily over the bridge. Lee started school in Windsor. In 1931, his grandfather James Ferguson died and Lee and his mother moved back to Toronto. They lived with his grandmother Agnes at 42 Brookmount Road and Lee enrolled at Norway, likely in Grade 5. He graduated in 1934 and then went to Malvern for two years. In 1936 they returned to Windsor and Lee continued his high school education. His grandmother died the next year.
Lee moved back to Toronto in the summer of 1940 and was living at 21 Lockwood Road, not far from the house he’d lived in with his grandmother. His mother’s brother and sisters and their families were living next door to each other on Wineva Avenue. Lee applied to the air force in August. At the time his hobbies were sports, especially football, tennis and hockey.
He wasn’t actually accepted into the RCAF until January 8, 1941. He began his training in Ontario but was sent for courses in Quebec at Victoriaville and Trois Rivières. At the latter he took an elementary flight training course and only passed it because he improved toward the end of the 50 hours of lessons. He returned to Ontario in August and took advanced pilot training in Picton and at Mountain View airfield in Prince Edward County. He was awarded his pilot’s wings there on November 11. He remained at Mountain View until June 1942. By this time he had 327 flying hours. He was transferred to Charlottetown for two months for general reconnaissance school, training on Anson airplanes. He failed the course. One instructor wrote “Has worked hard and really tried. His records show that he never completed SFTS (Service Flying Training School) training. Had not the required background and training to cope with the course.” He was recommended to be a drogue towing pilot. In August 1942, Lee was sent to Bombing and Gunnery school in Mossbank, Saskatchewan and probably towed drogues there. A drogue is a fabric target that is pulled by an aircraft so that the students can shoot paint at it. Live ammunition was also used and the drogue could be extended from 1200 to 3400 feet behind the aircraft so the towing plane wouldn’t get hit. Mossbank trained many Commonwealth airmen and was like a small town with five aircraft hangars. It had an indoor swimming pool, a tennis court, an open air skating rink and two baseball diamonds. The airmen made trips into the nearby town of Mossbank, where “The Hostess Club” was set up in the Masonic Hall for socializing. When Lee left Mossbank in November, 1943, he had just over 1000 hours flying time.
Hawker Henley pulling a target drogue. From www.wallyswar.wordpress.com.
It’s unknown whether Lee requested the transfer or if his abilities had improved to deploy him to European operations. When Lee embarked for Europe that November, his parents had split up. His mother was living on Wineva with her brother Walter. His father had moved to Detroit, living in the Wolverine Hotel Apartments.
For the next eleven months, Lee trained to be a pilot on Wellington night bomber airplanes and then converted to Halifax bombers. On October 14, 1944, he joined the 408 “Canada Goose” Squadron, which flew Halifaxes. It was based at Linton-on-Ouse, Yorkshire, near York, a field shared with the RCAF 426 “Thunderbird” squadron. In that month, the 408 Squadron had 22 Halifax bombers and 38 pilots. Lee flew bombing missions over Germany on October 10 and 12. For the rest of 1944, he only flew one more mission on December 2. Things remained quiet for Lee during January 1943, apart from training operations.
Handley Page Halifax bomber. United Kingdom Government photo.
On January 28, a large mission to bomb Stuttgart, Germany was undertaken. The city was attacked twice during the night of the 28th/29th by 602 aircraft in two waves, three hours apart. Lee’s crew consisted of navigator Norman Godwin Baily, a 31 year old from Georgetown, Ontario; Air Gunner John Anthony O’Brien, 29, from Toronto’s High Park neighbourhood; Air Gunner Brooks Earl House, 20, from Waterdown, near Hamilton; RAF Flight Engineer Thomas Herbert Chandler from Yorkshire, England; Wireless Operator Jack Clarence Mortley, a 20 year old who lived on Coxwell a block from his public school, Earl Haig. An Eastern Commerce graduate, this flight was his first mission. The final member was Air Gunner Frank Henry, a 20 year old who was born in Sudbury, lived in Brampton and moved to Balsam Avenue in the Beach in time to study at Malvern. Frank arrived at Malvern five years after Lee left, but no doubt they were drawn to each other by their shared history.
Flight Sergeant Frank Henry, air gunner and Malvern Collegiate alumnus. Source: Library and Archives Canada.
The Halifax took off at 1953 hrs, part of the second wave. They were expected back at 0235 hrs on the 29th, but crashed at Gueltlingen, 25 miles southeast of Stuttgart. The 408 Squadron lost two planes that night.
The crew was buried in consecutive graves in Durnbach Cemetery near Munich. In Lee’s effects which were returned to his family, there was an identification bracelet which he had left behind at the air base. He and Norman Baily couldn’t be identified so they share a collective grave. The crew is also listed on the Bomber Command Memorial Wall in Nanton, Alberta.
Lee’s father remained in Detroit and remarried in 1949. He died in 1959. Lee’s mother continued to live with her brother’s family in the Beach and was still alive in 1966.