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In memory of:

Pilot Officer Henry Gordon Anderson

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Military service

Service number: J/6490
Age: 27
Rank: Pilot Officer
Force: Air Force
Unit/Regiment: Royal Canadian Air Force
Division: 419 Sqdn.
Birth: April 15, 1914 Exeter, Ontario
Enlistment: October 28, 1940 Ontario
Death: February 12, 1942

Burial/memorial information

RUNNYMEDE MEMORIAL
Grave reference: Panel 99.
Additional information
Son of James and Louise Anderson. He attended S.S. #10 Usborne from 1920 to 1925 and Exeter High School from 1925 to 1930. He subsequently attended the University of Western Ontario from 1930 to 1932 and then taught at the Thames Road School and Chemins in Northern Ontario before joining Kerr-Addison Gold Mines Ltd of Rouyn.

Pilot Officer Anderson enrolled in the Royal Canadian Air Force at North Bay on 28 October 1940. He took his basic training at 1 Manning Depot Toronto and RCAF Station Trenton. On 28 January 1941 he attended 1 Initial Training School at Toronto and then 3 Elementary Flying Training School at London. He took advanced flying training at 1 Service Flying Training School at Camp Borden, graduating 31 July 1941 and being commissioned as a pilot officer in recognition of his flying abilities. On 14 August 1941, he was posted to England and after taking instruction in the Vickers Wellington III bomber at 23 Operational Training Unit, was posted to 419 Squadron 1 January 1942.

In February 1942, two of Germany's few remaining battleships were blockaded in Brest, France. From the German viewpoint, the ships were not safe from enemy attack, and were of no use as long as they were cooped up in a French harbour. It was therefore decided that the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau would break out of Brest and race down the channel to the German naval base at Kiel. The British were aware of this, though, were taken completely by surprise and were unable to deploy heavy naval forces in time to block the eastern end of the English Channel. Pilot Officer Anderson is commemorated on the Runneymede Memorial and on a bronze plaque on the Cenotaph located in St. Marys, Ontario.

Related media

Second World War (1939 – 1945)

In the Books of Remembrance

Commemorated on:

Page 54 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance.
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RUNNYMEDE MEMORIAL Surrey, United Kingdom

During the Second World War more than 116,000 men and women of the Air Forces of the British Commonwealth gave their lives in service. More than 17,000 of these were members of the Royal Canadian Air Force, or Canadians serving with the Royal Air Force. Approximately one-third of all who died have no known grave. Of these, 20,450 are commemorated by name on the Runnymede Memorial, which is situated at Englefield Green, near Egham, 32 kilometers by road west of London.

The design of the Runnymede Memorial is original and striking. On the crest of Cooper's Hill, overlooking the Thames, a square tower dominates a cloister, in the centre of which rests the Stone of Remembrance. The cloistered walks terminate in two lookouts, one facing towards Windsor, and the other towards London Airport at Heathrow. The names of the dead are inscribed on the stone reveals of the narrow windows in the cloisters and the lookouts. They include those of 3,050 Canadian airmen. Above the three-arched entrance to the cloister is a great stone eagle with the Royal Air Force motto, Per Ardua ad Astra". On each side is the inscription:

IN THIS CLOISTER ARE RECORDED THE NAMES OF TWENTY THOUSAND AIRMEN WHO HAVE NO KNOWN GRAVE. THEY DIED FOR FREEDOM IN RAID AND SORTIE OVER THE BRITISH ISLES AND THE LANDS AND SEAS OF NORTHERN AND WESTERN EUROPE

In the tower a vaulted shrine, which provides a quiet place for contemplation, contains illuminated verses by Paul H. Scott."

For more information, visit Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

 

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