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Charles Goldhamer

Charles Goldhamer, painter (b at Philadelphia, Pa 21 Aug 1903; d at Toronto 27 Jan 1985). He was commissioned as one of Canada's official war artists, and his candidly observed charcoal drawings of burned Canadian airmen in an English hospital are some of the most horrific images of WWII.

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George Frederick Beurling

He rebelled against service discipline and was released in Oct 1944. Lost in a world without air combat - "It's the only thing I can do well; it's the only thing I ever did I really liked" - he joined the Israeli Air Force in 1948, and died when the aircraft he was ferrying to Palestine crashed.

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Jacques Dextraze

Jacques Alfred Dextraze, "Ja Dex," soldier (b at Montréal 15 Aug 1919; d at Ottawa 10 May 1993). He served during WWII in Iceland, England, France, Germany and the Netherlands and was promoted from private to lt-col commanding the Fusiliers Mount-Royal.

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George Mitchell Croil

George Mitchell Croil, airman (b at Milwaukee, Wis 5 June 1893; d at Vancouver 8 Apr 1959). Croil flew with the Royal Flying Corps in Salonika and trained pilots in the Middle East in WWI. In 1919 he joined the Canadian Air Board and was one of 62 officers granted RCAF commissions in 1924.

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Gordon Churchill

Gordon Minto Churchill, lawyer, teacher, politician (b at Coldwater, Ont 8 Nov 1898; d at Vancouver 3 Aug 1985). One of John Diefenbaker's closest Cabinet confidants, Churchill was a knowledgeable and respected parliamentarian who served as Tory House leader in the Diefenbaker era.

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Lloyd Samuel Breadner

Lloyd Samuel Breadner, air chief marshal (b at Carleton Place, Ont 14 July 1894; d at Boston, Mass 14 Mar 1952). Commissioned in the Royal Naval Air Service 28 December 1915, he won a Distinguished Service Cross as a fighter pilot in 1917.

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E.L.M. Burns

Eedson Louis Millard Burns, soldier, diplomat, author (b at Westmount, Qué 17 June 1897; d at Manotick, Ont 13 Sept 1985). After graduating from RMC in 1915, Burns fought on the Western Front with the Royal Canadian Engineers from 1916 to 1918.

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Wilfred Curtis

Wilfred Austin Curtis, air marshal (b at Havelock, Ont 21 Aug 1893; d at Nassau, Bahamas 7 Aug 1977). As chief of the air staff 1947-53, Curtis presided over unprecedented peacetime growth in the RCAF.

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Percy Walker Nelles

Percy Walker Nelles, naval officer (b at Brantford, Ont, 7 Jan 1892; d at Victoria, 13 June 1951). Percy Nelles, the son of Charles Nelles, an officer in the Royal Canadian Dragoons, was the founding recruit of the Canadian Navy and became chief of the naval staff.

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David Harry Walker

David Harry Walker, army officer, novelist (b at Dundee, Scot 9 Feb 1911; d 5 March 1992). Raised in Scotland and England, Walker was aide-de-camp to Canadian Gov Gen John BUCHAN 1938-39, a POW in Europe 1940-45, and comptroller to the viceroy of India 1946-47.

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Robert Leckie

Robert Leckie, air marshal (b at Glasgow, Scot 16 Apr 1890; d at Ottawa 31 Mar 1975). A much-decorated flying-boat pilot in WWI, Leckie was the only airman to be credited with downing 2 Zeppelins.

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Wop May

Wilfrid Reid (Wop) May, OBE, DFC, aviator, First World War flying ace (born 20 March 1896, in Carberry, Manitoba; died 21 June 1952 near Provo, UT). Wop May was an aviator who served as a fighter pilot in the First World War. May finished the war as a flying ace, credited with 13 victories, and was part of the dogfight in which the infamous Red Baron was gunned down. After the war, May became a renowned barnstormer (or stunt pilot) and bush pilot, flying small aircraft into remote areas in Northern Canada, often on daring missions. May flew in several historic flights, carrying medicine and aide to northern locations and assisting law enforcement in manhunts, including the hunt for Albert Johnson, the “Mad Trapper of Rat River” in 1932.