John Clifton King

John King's father Alwyn Clifton King was born in 1892 in Tachbrook, England, not far from Stratford-Upon-Avon. He came to Canada before the First World War and his mother and three of his siblings also arrived in Ontario, whether together or individually is undocumented. Alwyn lived near Ossington Avenue and Dupont Street with his mother and a brother. In 1916 Alwyn enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force and saw action in France, winning the Military Medal for bravery in 1918. A few months later he fell into a shell hole and injured both of his knees. He was invalided out of the forces in Toronto in March 1919.

On December 6, 1919 he married Edith Ward, a milliner at Eaton's department store. Edith had been born in Newmarket, England and had immigrated to Toronto in 1911. By 1915 she was boarding with Alwyn and his mother. When Alwyn was fighting in World War I, his mother moved twice around the Ossington/Dupont/Dovercourt neighbourhood and Edith moved with her.

The couple settled at 430 Delaware Avenue and Alwyn was employed as an electrical operator, ultimately working most of his career for the Toronto Transit Commission as a driver. John was born on October 5, 1920 at the Lynhurst Hospital which was at 100 Yorkville Avenue. A younger brother William eventually followed. John entered Dovercourt school in 1925. In 1930 John had a few health issues. He had his tonsils and and adenoids removed and suffered a bout of rheumatic fever.

Postcard of Lynhurst Private Hospital. From The Toronto Public Library Digital Archive.

Alwyn put the Delaware Avenue house up for sale in June 1931 and the family moved to 568 Runnymede Road. The house stood where the northern extension of the Bell building is today. John and presumably William started school at Strathcona, with John in Grade 5. In 1934 John took on two newspaper routes, one for The Toronto Star and the other for The Evening Telegram, both of which he held until 1940.

He graduated from Strathcona in June 1935 and continued to Humberside Collegiate that September. He was a young man who played hockey and football, although not extensively. He liked to ski and swim and his hobby was building model airplanes. After completing his Junior Matriculation in June 1940, he had a summer job with the Harbour Commission as a lifeguard and swimming instructor. Later, in his RCAF file, John was described as liking war canoeing and was very keen on sports.

It is unclear whether John returned to Humberside to start his Grade 13 but he enlisted in the RCAF on December 11, 1940. (Actor Christopher Plummer's father, John Orme Plummer, was working in the Toronto enlistment offices and signed John's papers.) The air force was just beginning to accept non-pilots. John is described on his enlistment papers as a quarter inch short of 6 foot tall and 155 pounds, dark complexioned with blue eyes and dark brown hair.

John was immediately sent to the Manning Depot in Brandon, Manitoba to take his basic training. Usually recruits then moved on to an Initial Training School (ITS) to take classroom lessons in aviation, but John was transferred to the RCAF station in Prince Rupert, British Columbia where he probably became a guard. One can surmise that there was a glut of recruits and Prince Rupert for John was where he would wait for a space at an ITS. That space opened up on February 2, 1941 and John began the course. He showed promise as a pilot and graduated to the Elementary Training School in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. From March 28, John received 50 hours of flight training and continued to show his instructors that he was excellent pilot material. His next step to winning his pilot's wings was at the Service Flying Training school in Medicine Hat, Alberta. The base trained pilots on two seater Harvard aircraft.

John was awarded his wings on August 8 and was given two weeks' leave prior to reporting to Halifax at the end of the month. He spent the time with his family in Toronto. Upon arriving in Halifax, he embarked almost immediately and landed in Britain by September 13, reporting to the Personnel Reception Centre in Bournemouth, where all RCAF airmen were given their postings. John spent a month there and was finally posted to No. 19 Operational Training Unit, where he would learn to fly the plane he would fight in. The OTU trained night bomber crews and was located at RAF Kinloss in north east Scotland. The unit flew Armstrong Whitworth Whitley planes. It was a medium bomber which had been in service since 1937 and was part of the Second World War's first bombing raid. It had a crew of five: a pilot, a co-pilot/navigator, a bomb aimer, a wireless operator and a rear gunner.

Armstrong Whitworth Whitley bomber. From Wikipedia.

On February 24, 1942, John joined RCAF 419 Squadron. Located in Mildenhall, Suffolk, approximately 30 kilometres north east of Cambridge, the squadron was flying Wellington bombers. The squadron had been formed the previous December and was known as the Moose squadron, after the nickname of John Fulton, the commanding officer. Its motto was in Cree rather than latin: “Moosa Aswayita” or “Ferocious Fighter” in English. It appears that John converted to the Wellington at the base, training for a month. At the time, the Wellington was the primary long range bomber of the Allies, eventually supplanted by the Lancaster and it had a crew of six: a pilot, a second pilot, a wireless operator, a navigator, and two air gunners, one in the nose and one in the tail. The second pilot was usually less experienced and after a number of missions was given a crew of his own.

John's first sortie was on March 25, as second pilot to a Flight Sergeant Elliot. They took off at 2040 hrs, successfully bombed Essen and returned at 2340 hrs. He joined the same crew on March 28, to bomb the port of Lubeck, Germany, about 20 kilometres north east of Hamburg. They landed back at the base at 0210 hrs. It was also a success, but one Wellington from the squadron did not return that night.

John didn't fly during the month of April, except for training. He joined the crew of 24 year old pilot Charles Melville Shannon as the second pilot. Shannon was from Blyth, Ontario, a married man whose wife lived in Toronto. He had twelve missions to his credit. Navigator Alfred Ernest McCoy hailed from Saskatoon and was 21 years old. The wireless operator was Howard Robert Hibbard from Quebec, 20 years old, and the two air gunners were 22 year old Michael McAroy from Welland, Ontario and Henry Edward Went, 24, from Toronto who had attended De La Salle College.

Wellington X3703 landing. Date unknown. From www.krulantiquarianbooks.nl.

John's first sortie with Shannon was on May 4, to bomb Stuttgart in Wellington X3703. They took off at 2235 hrs and returned safely at 0444 hrs. Their next mission was on May 8, to bomb Warnemunde, on the Baltic Sea. They were presumably shot down a kilometre away from the target. All aboard were killed and for several years they were considered missing. John and the crew are buried in the Berlin 1939-1945 War Cemetery.

Alwyn worked for the TTC until he retired and he passed away in 1963. Edith lived at 568 Runnymede until 1968.