Kenneth William Tutton

Born June 20, 1922, Ken Tutton grew up at 17 Firstbrook Road, the son of Thomas Henry Tutton, an English immigrant from the Isle of Wight who was born in 1890. His mother Nellie Elizabeth Humpage (b. ca. 1893) was from Huntsville, Ontario, descended from the First Nations of Lake Scugog on her mother's side. Her father was an English immigrant. The family was living on Tiverton Avenue near Dundas and Logan when Ken was born. They became the first owners of 17 Firstbrook in 1924.

The fourth of five children, Ken attended Norway School and St. John's Norway church. He was a favourite of his only sister Gladys and had a cheerful nature. At Norway until 1936, it was there that he discovered his natural gift for sports. Malvern Collegiate with its perennially impressive sports program, proved to be the ideal nurturing ground for Ken’s talents in rugby, football, basketball and ice hockey and he was a member of the school teams for all these sports including the 1939 City championship rugby team.

On Saturdays, Ken worked at the Loblaws store that was near Main Street and Kingston Road. He had a summer job in 1940 at Dunlop Rubber Company on Queen Street East where Jimmy Simpson Park now is. Ken's father was a foreman there. Along with team sports, Ken collected stamps. Like many other Beach kids, he loved to skate at Kew Gardens in the winter time.

Ken in his rugby uniform. Malvern Muse yearbook, 1940.

Once the war started and when the boys were old enough, most of the rugby team joined the RCAF on the same day in January 1941. Ken quit school to enlist. Ken’s intentions had been very clear that he would join the RCAF. Among the friendly jokes in the Malvern yearbook, there is a reference to his focus on the air force. Like all local recruits, he had a month of basic training on the Exhibition grounds where he also took the standard RCAF aptitude test. It would determine whether he would be trained for air crew or ground crew. Up to 5000 men slept in the Coliseum at a time and Ken had a bed in a horse stall.

Left to right: Harold Davis, Russell Davis, their mother Elizabeth Davis and Ken, in front of the Davis home, 25 Firstbrook Road, 1941. From The Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

Training with Ken was Russell Davis, another Norway graduate and a neighbour from four doors up Firstbrook. Ken’s dream of becoming a pilot drew closer to reality as he was assigned to No. 1 Initial Training School near Eglinton and Avenue Road, then to Windsor, Ontario. He and Russell spent a month in Windsor studying theory and being subjected to a number of academic and physical tests. If a pilot candidate did not meet the expectations, he would be sent to the Wireless Air Gunner stream. Ken worked hard and when postings were announced, he was deemed pilot material. His flying lessons began at Service Flying Training School No. 16 at Hagersville, near Hamilton, where Anson and Harvard trainers were used. He won his wings on December 12, 1941 on the same day as Russell. Ken's family attended the ceremony and his sister presented him with a watch to honour his achievement.

The Toronto Star, December 12, 1942. Ken is in the back row on the right. Russell Davis is in the front, left.

In January 1942 Ken and Russell shipped overseas to England for more training and this is where their careers diverged. Whenever he had leave, Ken visited his father’s family. One time Ken arrived late to his posting and was considered AWOL. He did some time in detention, mainly digging holes and filling them back in again. Late in 1942 he spent a couple of months at the Operational Training Unit (OTU) in Wellesbourne Mountford, near Stratford Upon Avon as a member of Course 28. OTUs trained air crew on the aircraft which they would be flying once deployed. Ken trained day and night on Wellington bombers, flying target and bombing practice. In 1942, the two-engine Wellington was the primary long range night bomber of the Allied forces, eventually supplanted by the four-engine Lancaster bomber. Once crews at Wellesbourne Mountford graduated, they were usually deployed on one benign mission to drop propaganda leaflets over Germany.

Vickers Wellington bomber. United Kingdom Government photo.

On February 10, 1943 Ken arrived at Dishforth air base in North Yorkshire to join RCAF Squadron No. 426. It was a new squadron, formed four months earlier and the men were known as the Thunderbirds. The commanding officer, Wing Commander Sedley S. Blanchard, was the squadron’s first C.O. He was 31 years old, born in Edmonton and had studied at the Royal Military College in Kingston. After several years as an army officer, he resigned his commission to join the RCAF where he became a pilot.

Wing Commander Sedley Stewart Blanchard (1911-1943). From The Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

On February 14, the day of Ken's first raid, Blanchard assigned him to his crew, as second pilot. No doubt Blanchard wanted to size up the abilities of the new squadron member first hand. The rest of the crew was 20 year old RAF bomb aimer Percival Corley from South Norwood, England, 23 year old air gunner Joseph Eveline from Sudbury, navigator Paul Jeanneret, a 23 year old from Victoria, BC and a 29 year old native of Foxboro, Ontario, wireless operator Arthur Longwell. At the afternoon briefing they were informed that the target would be the war factories of Cologne. Six Wellingtons of 426 Squadron would join 237 other aircraft in the attack.

Ken’s Wellington took off just after 1800 hrs and dropped its bombs over the target at 2030 hrs. While returning home at 2110 hrs, the Wellington got caught in the crosshairs of a Messerschmitt 110 piloted by Hauptmann Manfred Meurer, a Luftwaffe night fighter flying ace. He strafed the Wellington. It caught fire and crashed in a wooded area between Beegden and Heel in the Netherlands. Many in the small villages witnessed the crash and rushed to the wreckage, but no survivors were found. Ken Tutton was 20 years old.

After the Germans had removed the bodies of the six airmen, a villager discovered a watch in the wreckage. Engraved on the watch was “To Ken From Gladys 1941” and his serial number. This was the watch Ken’s sister had given him the day he won his wings.

Ken's grave, Jonkerbos War Cemetery. Photo: Frans van Cappellen, The Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

Ken now rests with the other crew members of the Wellington in Jonkerbos War Cemetery, not far from Beegden and Heel.

Memorial cairn plaque. Photo from: www.426sqdn.ca.

In May 1999, a memorial cairn was unveiled near the crash site, commemorating the crew that died that night in 1943. Ken’s watch was presented to a representative of the Thunderbird Squadron. It is now on display with photos of Ken Tutton in a shadow box outside of Blanchard Hall, Dishforth Building at Trenton Air Base.

Ken's watch and shadow box contents, RCAF Trenton. From: www.426sqdn.ca.

Thomas passed away in 1956. Nellie was still living at 17 Firstbrooke in 1969 and passed away in 1987.

Note: Three airmen from Firstbrook Avenue died in World War II. Ken, Russell and Vincent Paul McAllister, an alumnus of Corpus Christi who lived at 18 Firstbrook. (Until the 1960s Firstbrook was spelled without an 'e' on the end.)

(Much of the above is from the author's article about Kenneth Tutton published in The Beach Metro, November 2, 2015. With thanks to Ken Cullum, Kenneth Tutton's nephew.)