- Type
- Memorial Service
- Date
- -
- Time
- -
- Details
When the Royal Canadian Navy names the sixth Arctic Offshore Patrol Ship, HMCS Robert Hampton Gray, in Halifax, for the only member of the Royal Canadian Navy to be awarded the Victoria Cross, the ship's namesake will be remembered in a ceremony at the BC Aviation Museum at Victoria International Airport at 10:45 a.m. Saturday, August 9.
Representatives of the Royal Canadian Navy and Airforce and members of the Vancouver Island Branch of the Naval Association will gather with supporters of the BC Aviation Museum to remember the navy pilot. Wreaths will be placed at the monument installed two years ago at the entrance to the museum. The short ceremony will include the sounding of the Last Post and Rouse.
The ceremonies at both ends of the country are on the same day 80 years ago in 1945, when Lieutenant Robert Hampton Gray, flying from the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Formidable led an attack on Japanese ships in Onagawa Bay. Hit by anti-aircraft fire, he released his bomb to sink the destroyer Amakusa before his plane crashed into the bay. One of the last Canadians to die in the Second World War, he was awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously. He is the last Canadian to be so honoured. Coincidentally, also on August 9, there is an annual community ceremony in Onagawa, Japan, at a monument dedicated to Gray that is located near the hospital. It is the only monument to a former enemy ever erected in Japan.- Location
- B.C. Aviation Museum
- Address
- 1910 Norseman Rd
- City
- North Saanich, British Columbia
Contact
Gerald Pash
gwpash@shaw.ca
250-658-6509