Canadian Virtual War Memorial

Inscription – Cookstown Cenotaph.

Memorial – Pilot Officer Douglas Dawson is also commemorated on the Bomber Command Memorial Wall in Nanton, AB … photo courtesy of Marg Liessens

Memorial – Pilot Officer Douglas Dawson is also commemorated on the Bomber Command Memorial Wall in Nanton, AB … photo courtesy of Marg Liessens

Memorial – Father J P Lardie's comments as inscribed on the Bomber Command Memorial Wall in Nanton, AB … photo courtesy of Marg Liessens

Newspaper clipping – From the Toronto Star September 1944. Submitted for the project Operation Picture Me

Newspaper clipping – From the Toronto Star September 1944. Submitted for the project Operation Picture Me

Photo of DOUGLAS DAWSON – Submitted for the project Operation Picture Me

Newspaper clipping – From the Toronto Star September 1944. Submitted for the project Operation Picture Me

Newspaper clipping – From the Toronto Star September 1944. Submitted for the project Operation Picture Me

Newspaper clipping – From the Toronto Star September 1944. Submitted for the project Operation Picture Me

Newspaper clipping – From the Toronto Star September 1944. Submitted for the project Operation Picture Me

Newspaper Clipping – newspaper clipping The crew of Lancaster LM693 in 115 (RAF) Sqdn had taken part in the key raid against Stettin 29/30 August 1944. On the night of 16/17 Sept. 44 at 2128 it was airborne from RAF Witchford on a mission to bomb Flak positions at Moerdijk, Holland. This was Operation Market Garden in support of the landings by British and American airborne troops at Arnhem and Nijmegen which took place the following morning. The aircraft is thought to have collided with Lancaster LM 169 of 90 (RAF) and crashed near Strijen (Zuid-Holland). All but two of the crew were Canadian and are buried in Strijen Protestant Cemetery. They were: F/O (P) Peter W. Bickford, age 22, from Pennsylvania, U.S.A. F/O (N) Arnold N. Johnston, age 22, from Burketon, Ont. F/O (BA) Wilfrid G. Scanlan, age 22, from Westport, Ont. F/S (AG) Douglas Dawson, age 19, from Cookstown, Ont. F/S (AG) Donald G. Flood, age 20, from Woodstock, Ont. Sgt. (FE) Peter L. Dooley, RAF, age 19, from Surrey, England F/S (WAG) U. B. Butters, RAF, age 21, from Hull, England [Sources: www.lostbombers.co.uk and They Shall Grow Not Old, published by Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum, Brandon, Manitoba.]

Memorial Street – Innisfil street named in honour of Pilot Officer Douglas Dawson with a poppy.

Strijen Protestant Cemetery – Photo of Strijen Protestant Cemetery by Fedor de Vries on http://www.ww2museums.com The 5 RCAF aircrew of Lancaster LM693 are buried here with 6 from the U.K.

Grave Marker – Photo courtesy of Pieter Schlebaum, The Netherlands.