JAMES M MCRAE: I was born 28 November, 1917, the second of three sons of Gordon and Mamie McRae. I grew up on the farm my Father had homesteaded in 1904. My public school education was in a one room school, about two miles from home. To attend High School it was necessary to ride horseback a distance of seven miles to Huxley.

When I completed grade eleven I either worked at home on the farm or for neighboring farmers. Later on I worked for a cousin who farmed on a large scale, ran a trucking business and garage, and had dealerships for General Motors cars and International Harvester machinery. A wide range of experience was gained while there.

In July of 1941 my younger brother Earl and I joined the airforce, were accepted for pilot training and graduated with our wings in October of the following year. From there we parted, he for Bomber Command overseas, and I for General Reconnaisance training at Charlottetown. P. E. I. He and his crew were lost on a raid on Hanover in September, 1943. Following operational training I joined 162(BR) squadron in Yarmouth.

Shortly after my arrival in Yarmouth I met my future wife, Margaret Nickerson. We were married in November, just about two months before our Squadron moved to Iceland.

Our Squadron moved to Reykjavik, Iceland in January, 1944. On completion of my tour of operations in March, 1945, I returned to Yarmouth where I joined the Meteorological Flight until my release from the RCAF in September, 1945.

On 1 April, 1945 our first daughter, Marsha, was born.

I worked as a bus driver for Wagner tours for about six months, before teaming up with Gerald McKay to start up a flying training school and charter flying service in Yarmouth. Gerald had flown Spitfire aircraft overseas, and with my Canso experience we had a wide knowledge of flying to apply to the job.

In 1948 I joined the Yarmouth Fire Department until September of 1951 when I re-enlisted in the RCAF, this time in the Air Traffic Control branch.

In the meantime, our second daughter, Susan, was born on 30 December, 1950.

There followed postings to Greenwood, Nova Scotia, Torbay, Nfld., Marville, France, and Bagotville, Quebec until I reached retirement age in 1964. Sandwiched in between were short stints at Sardinia, Frobisher Bay, (Iqaluat), and the Belgian Congo, (Renamed Zaire in 1971, but now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo).

While serving at RCAF1 Fighter Wing James Jr. was born on 20 February, 1959.

I returned to Yarmouth once again and decided to settle here. I purchased my present home, located just a kilometer north of Yarmouth across the highway from Lake Milo. Once more a civilian, I became the Yarmouth distributor for McCain potato chips until I joined Customs in 1966. It seems that I was destined to continue wearing a uniform of some sort. I was promoted to Customs Superintendant, and retired from there in 1982 at the age of 65

In 1970 my first marriage broke up and on 21 Dec, 1971 I married Catherine Hamm. She passed away just a few months before I was due to retire in November, 1982.

Now in retirement, I am still interested in aviation and am a member of the Canadian Aviation Heritage Society, The Lancaster Support Club, the Atlantic Canada Aviation Museum, the Aircrew Association, and the Yarmouth County Museum. I enjoy travelling, playing golf in the summer and curling in the winter. When not involved in any of these activities, I am usually surfing the Internet.

That, in a fairly large nutshell, covers my 80 years..


Drawn by a local artist, this is an excellent representation of the one room school we all attended. It was located 2 miles from our home and in it the teacher taught grades one to eight. It served as a community centre where everything from church services on Sunday, to dances, pie or box socials were held. At those, lunches provided by the women were auctioned to the highest bidder, who then got to eat the lunch with whoever made it. These were always nicely decorated and everyone tried to guess which lunch or pie to bid on, hoping it would get him the lady of his choice.
    School picnics were held each June when school closed for the summer. Kids races and other contests were held where nickels and dimes could be won. Remember that in those days, a nickel would buy a chocolate bar or ice cream cone. A softball game would be arranged and after that,, the Acadia School picnic was famous for the big pot luck supper which followed. Finally, that night, a dance in the schoolhouse wound up the festivities.
    At Christmas time a concert would be held where the pupils provided the entertainment. Even those not yet old enough to go to school often learned a little poem to recite to the audience. The climax of the evening was the arrival of Santa Clause.
    All that remains now as a reminder of the old schoolhouse is a sign to indicate where it stood.

Tiger Moth: This is the type of aircraft on which I learned to fly at 19 EFTS. Virden, Manitoba. The day after Earl and I arrived at Virden, I was diagnosed as having the Mumps. This meant that I was confined to the hospital for the first two weeks of our stay. Fortunately the Chief Flying Instructor, Amdy Madore, allowed me to stay with our course so that Earl and I graduated together.
 


The Cessna Crane pictured is at the Wartime Heritage Museum in Hamilton. It was on this type of aircraft that Earl and I trained while at 12 SFTS, Brandon, Manitoba. We were both on Course 59 and graduated on 22 October, 1942. While on leave after receiving our pilot's wings, we received telegrams informing us that we had been appointed to commissions. Our rank changed from Sergeant to Pilot Officer.On our way East by train, we stopped off in Montreal and decked ourselves out in new Officer's uniforms.

Bill Marshall and I were posted to # 3 Operational Training Unit at Patricia Bay, B. C, on completion of the General Reconnaissance course in Charlottetown, P. E. I.. There we flew the Supermarine Stranraer flying boats. With these aircraft we got very good training in flying from water. The rugged Stranraer was an ideal aircraft for this purpose. Three crews made up the course, and when it was completed, we were all posted to Eastern Air Command to be allotted to Squadrons. Bill and I were transferred to Yarmouth where we joined 162(BR) Squadron. Dave Waterbury, navigator, and Harry Leatherdale, Flight Engineer were also on the course. When I got my own crew in August of 1943, they were both assigned to my crew.

With 162 Squadron we graduated to the Canso aircraft. Pictured here is 9754, the aircraft in which, flying as Co-pilot for Roy Renwick, I flew my first operational trip. It was to provide escort for the Queen Elizabeth carrying a load of troops enroute from New York to England. This was also the aircraft Dave Hornell and crew were flying when they attacked and sank U-1225 on 24 June 1944, flying from Wick in northern Scotland.

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