Roy Nelson Pate

Erving Pate and Emily Jenkins married in Toronto in September 1908. Erving had been born in Nelson, England in 1887 and came to Canada in 1904. becoming a sheet metal worker in the Toronto gasworks. His wife was born 100 kilometres from Nelson in Liverpool and she had sailed to Canada in 1905. They presumably met in Toronto, marrying in September 1908 and settling on Euclid Avenue in Toronto's west end. The next year they had a son, James Alfred (“Jim”) and when George Erving was born in 1911, they were living on Rhodes Avenue near Coxwell and Gerrard. They also had a daughter they named Irene.

The family moved to the Cedarvale neighbourhood before Roy's birth on June 12, 1920. Roy was born in their house at 73 King Edward Avenue (it was numbered 63 until the mid-1920s). Roy began school at Danforth Park in 1926. His brother George was an excellent student in the continuation class at the school at the time. Before East York High School (later Collegiate Institute) opened in 1927, Danforth Park was providing classes for higher grades. Roy graduated in 1934 and was able to attend East York for high school. He was a shy boy and wasn't a school team member, but he liked track and field and basketball and he skied in the winter. He earned his senior matriculation in 1939, but decided to return for another year for East York's Commercial course which taught him skills for working in an office. When he left school in 1940, he found a job as a clerk in the office of Staunton's Ltd., a wallpaper manufacturing company that was on Eglinton Avenue in Leaside.

Danforth Park's Class of 1934. Roy should be one of the boys in the photo. Source: Toronto District School Board Archives.

On June 28, 1941, Roy was an usher at his brother George's wedding and the next month, Roy began the process for joining the air force, taking the oath on August 22. The next day, Roy was sent to an auxiliary manning depot in Valcartier, Quebec. Here he and the other recruits learned basic training and took aptitude tests to determine whether they would be suitable for aircrew or ground crew. Roy was thought to be good aircrew material and on October 8, he arrived in Moncton, New Brunswick at No. 8 Service Flying Training School where he was given instruction to see whether he could be a pilot. If a candidate didn't pass, he was usually streamed towards navigation or gunnery.

Roy began theoretical studies at the Initial Training School in Victoriaville, Quebec. Roy did very well and placed 6th in his class of 65. He was recommended for the pilots' stream and was given flight lessons at No. 11 Elementary Flying Training School in Cap de la Madeleine, near Trois Rivieres, Quebec, starting in February 1942. He didn't do very well in his flight training and his instructor felt that his shyness hampered him because he didn't ask any questions or ask for advice. The other half of the course consisted of ground lessons and again Roy did very well, placing 5th in his class of 43.

Harvard Trainer. RCAF photo

On April 18 he entered the No. 13 Service Flying Training School in St. Hubert, south of Montreal. He was flying Harvard trainer planes, probably to be deployed as a fighter pilot. By the time he took off in the afternoon of June 28, he had flown 54 hours solo over the previous two months. He flew south over the American border into Vermont. People on the ground saw his plane crash into Lake Mempremagog at 1615 hrs, just south of the border. He did not survive. In Roy's service file, there is a report that states: “The cause of the accident has been attributed to 'carrying out unauthorized low flying over Lake Mempremagog and due to glossy water misjudged his height and crashed.'” Roy is buried in Scarborough's Resthaven Memorial Gardens.

Roy's parents lived at 73 King Edward Avenue until the early 1960s.