Ken Thomas was born August 16, 1918 in Eastbourne, England. His father Blyth Hannington Thomas, born in London, Ontario in 1892, was the son of an Anglican minister and Blyth's brother Aelwynn Brant Thomas also became a clergyman in western Ontario. Blyth fought for the British in the First World War and met Eva Florence Harris in England. The daughter of a hotel owner, she was born circa 1895 in Eastbourne, England, a seaside town on the south coast. During the First World War, a military convalescent facility called Summerdown Camp operated near the town. It was the largest facility of its type in Britain at the time.

 

The couple married in Eastbourne on November 27, 1917. Blyth brought his wife and son to Canada when Ken was five months old. In 1920 another son, Hugh, was born. By the mid-1920s they were settled at 508 Victoria Park Avenue and Blyth was a teacher at Norway school. The family never lived in the Norway district and in 1925 they moved to 361 Wolverleigh Boulevard north of Woodbine Avenue and Danforth. It was easier to take the two boys to school at Norway. In the early 1930s Blyth was the head of the men's division of the teacher's federation. In 1934 he transferred to Balmy Beach school. The family attended St. Aidan's church on Queen Street and Eva was an active member of the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire, a women's charitable organization.

 

Ken attended Norway from 1924 to 1930, transferring to the University of Toronto Schools (UTS) for Grades 7 to 13. He had his appendix removed when he was 13. He joined the UTS Cadet Corp in 1931 and in 1935 and 1936 Ken served in the 9th Toronto Field Battery (Toronto Irish) of the Royal Canadian Army Auxiliary where he learned signalling. He played hockey and tennis and won prizes at school for sports. He got his pass matriculation at UTS and was working on his honour matriculation when he left UTS to join the brokerage firm of Angus and Company in January 1937. On October 23, 1937 Ken started work at Simpson's department store as a clothing salesman and ultimately as an assistant department manager.

 

Ken tried to enlist with the RCAF in August 1940 but was not accepted because at the time only pilots and university graduates were being considered. In a September 1943 Toronto Telegram article, it was mentioned that he was turned down twice due to defective eyesight. Paperwork in his military file indicates that he was considered a good pilot or navigator candidate. In May 1941 Ken applied to join the Army as an officer cadet in the 2nd Petrol Coy. of the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps. The RCASC moved the supplies for the Army. Ken trained in Niagara in July and won marksman and signal awards, but by September 29, he enlisted in the RCAF to be a fighter pilot. At the time his hobbies were music and rifle shooting. He was living with his mother in an apartment at 338 Spadina Road, near the corner of Spadina and St. Clair. His father had joined the Army and was an officer at Camp Borden and his brother would ultimately join the army, leaving as a lieutenant. After the war Ken hoped to return to his job at Simpson's.

 

The RCAF still believed Ken would be a good pilot or navigator. From November 1941 to February 1942 he was stationed at the RCAF Bombing and Gunnery School near Jarvis, Ontario, which is a few kilometres northeast of Port Dover on Lake Erie. There he would have been a guard until an appropriate course opened up. Ken moved next to Belleville for initial aircrew training. In April he was in Oshawa at the Elementary Training School where he trained on Tiger Moths to be a pilot. From July until November 1942 he continued his pilot training at Camp Borden, where his father was stationed. On November 6, 1942, Ken received his pilot's wings. After a two week embarkation leave he was sent to the General Reconnaissance School in Summerside, P.E.I. where he flew Ansons.

 

Valentine's Day 1943 found Ken in Halifax, waiting to be sent overseas which happened a month later on March 8. On March 14 he disembarked in Britain and was assigned to the No. 18 (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit near Rugby, England where he trained on Oxford airplanes. By June, Ken arrived at the 132 Operational Training Unit at RAF East Fortune in Scotland, east of Edinburgh. There he learned to fly the Bristol Beaufighter, a long range night fighter that carried a crew of two, a pilot and a navigator.  The navigator sat in a dome in the middle of the plane.  At the end of August he was stationed with the 304 Ferry Unit in Port Ellen on the Scottish island of Islay. On September 3 he was briefly attached to RAF Filton near Bristol, England, but soon returned to Islay. By this date he had almost 270 hours total flying time but only 8 hours solo night flying on a Beaufighter.