BOTT o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-08-20 published
CUNNINGHAM,
Barbara
Helen (née
BOTT) 1920-2003
B... Names BO... Names BOT... Names Welcome Home
BOTT - All Categories in OGSPI
BOTTERELL o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-01-09 published
Last fighter pilot of the Great War
Canadian aviator, a bankteller in peacetime, was 'just doing
his duty'
By Allison
LAWLOR
Thursday,
January 9, 2003, Page R7
Henry BOTTERELL, the last of the fighter pilots that fought in
the First World War, has died in Toronto. He was 106.
Mr. BOTTERELL, who up until in his late 90s was swimming almost
every day, died peacefully at the Sunnybrook Veterans Hospital,
now part of Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre,
on Friday, less than two months after celebrating his 106th birthday.
One of 16 surviving Canadian veterans of the First World War
profiled in a Globe and Mail series in November, Henry
BOTTERELL
was believed to be the last fighter pilot from the 1914-1918
conflict, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Mr. BOTTERELL declined to take part in the series of interviews,
but at a special air-force celebration four years earlier he
recalled his days as a fighter pilot.
"I had good hands," he said then. "I didn't have the fighting
acumen of some, like Billy
BISHOP. I was just a bank clerk. I
wasn't one of the very best, but I had my share of action."
On August 29, 1918, Flight Lieutenant
BOTTERELL flew his Sopwith
Camel over Vitry, France. After dropping four bombs on a railway
station, he was heading back to his airfield when he encountered
a German observation balloon. He fired 400 rounds into the balloon
with his aircraft machine gun.
With the balloon ablaze, the soldier leaped from the basket and
opened his parachute. As the flaming remains of the balloon fell
to the ground, Mr.
BOTTERELL had enough time to swing around
and shoot his enemy, but didn't. Instead, he snapped him a chivalrous
salute before heading back to base. The moment was captured by
aviation artist Robert
TAILOR/TAYLOR, in his painting Balloon Buster.
"He was an adventurer," said Jon
STRAW, a friend and former director
of the Great War Flying Museum in Brampton, Ontario Mr.
STRAW
is also working on a book on Canadian pilots who served in the
First
World
War with Allan
SNOWIE, a retired naval aviator who
is now a pilot with Air Canada.
Like many of the veterans from the First World War, Mr.
BOTTERELL
didn't consider his war efforts to be heroic.
"He didn't think it was any big deal, he thought he was just
doing his duty," Mr.
STRAW said.
In 1916, Mr.
BOTTERELL was working for the Bank of North America
(now the Bank of Montreal) when his older brother Edward, who
played football for the Toronto Argonauts, was killed overseas
by a sniper. A few months later, Henry, then 20, enlisted with
the Royal Naval Air Service and was sent to England to train
as a fighter pilot.
His sister, Edith, who worked as a secretary for an admiral at
the time, had helped him get what she thought would be a safer
assignment in the war. But that didn't prove to be true. At one
point in the war, new pilots had a life expectancy of three weeks.
Mr. BOTTERELL's flying career got off to a difficult start. Engine
failure caused him to crash on only his second takeoff in September,
1917, at Dunkirk, France. He suffered head injuries, a fractured
leg, and broken teeth and spent six months in hospital. He was
eventually demobilized as disabled and discharged. But he later
re-enlisted and qualified as a fighter pilot again and returned
to France in early 1918.
His flight log reveals that he was attached to the 208th Squadron
serving in France from May 11 to November 27, 1918. His records
show that during that time, he flew patrols and fought over places
including Serny, Estrées and Arras. He then transferred to Belgium,
according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Wing
Commander
Neil
MEADOWS, the commanding officer of Royal
Air
Force 208 Squadron, said in his condolences to Mr.
BOTTERELL's
family that Henry "remains, an inspiration to our trainee pilots.
I do feel that we have lost a tangible part of what we are, and
what we aspire to be.
"Undoubtedly, he did not view his actions as out of the ordinary,
but his courage and dedication to duty are an example that I
hope our trainees will emulate in their own flying careers,"
he wrote on behalf of the squadron. "I am sure, therefore, that
his spirit will live on with the young pilots that continue to
serve on 208 Squadron."
During his war service, Mr.
BOTTERELL flew a variety of planes,
but the Camel, which got its name from the hump created by two
machine guns imbedded under its cowling, was his favourite. He
had one particular close call, when on a flight a bullet ripped
through his ear and smashed his goggles.
"I went out like a light for a few minutes, and I recovered just
before I crashed," he once said.
Henry
John
Lawrence
BOTTERELL was born in 1896 in Ottawa to Henry
and Annie BOTTERELL.
His mother raised him after his father died
of pneumonia when Henry was a young boy. Henry attended Lisgar
Collegiate Institute in Ottawa. An athletic young man, he played
football like his older brother and remained physically active
throughout his life.
"He was a loner," said his son Edward
BOTTERELL, adding that
his father enjoyed sports he would do alone such as swimming,
cross-country skiing and sailing. In 1919, he returned to Canada
and to banking as an assistant chief accountant. He remained
with the Bank of Montreal until his retirement in the 1960s.
As a souvenir from the war he brought back a Belgian fence post
that had snagged the wing of his Camel on a low-level flights.
It is now in the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.
In 1929 he married and moved with his wife Maud to Montreal.
They raised two children before his wife died in 1983 after suffering
several strokes. During the Second World War, Mr.
BOTTERELL commanded
an Air Cadet Squadron, in Quebec, though he himself never took
to the air. After returning home in 1919, he gave up flying.
In 1999, Mr.
BOTTERELL was the guest of honour at a mess dinner
commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air
Force. That same year he celebrated his own 102nd birthday at
a hotel in Lille, France, where he and other Canadian veterans
were marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the War.
Despite his failing memory, his son Edward said his father was
"moved by the experience."
Mr. BOTTERELL is survived by daughter Frances
MARQUETTE of Houston,
Texas, and son Edward
BOTTERELL of Mississauga, Ontario
Henry BOTTERELL, aviator and banker; born in Ottawa on November
7, 1896, died in Toronto on January 3, 2003.
B... Names BO... Names BOT... Names Welcome Home
BOTTERELL o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-02-15 published
LUCAS,
Muriel
May (née
ROSS)
Died peacefully, at her home in Toronto, on Wednesday, February
12, 2003, in her 97th year. She was born in Brighton, Ontario
on December 15, 1906. The
ROSS family were early settlers from
Ireland in the Brighton region. Muriel's parents were Robert
James ROSS and Elva
WAITE.
Elva
WAITE's parents, Sarah Jane and
William WAITE, were of United Empire Loyalist background and
owned a farm between Brighton and Colborne. Muriel was a Registered
Nurse and graduated from The Wellesley Hospital. During World
War 2, she volunteered for the Red Cross Blood Donor Clinic and
nursing assignments at The Wellesley Hospital to free up nurses
for war duty. Muriel devoted much of her time and energy to her
church, Deer Park United. Her many years of service included
being president of the United Church Women. She was a longtime
member of the Philanthropic Educational Opportunity and continued
to attend meetings into her last year. Her service to her community
also included Board membership of Saint Christopher House and
the Toronto Children's Aid Society. Muriel enjoyed spending every
summer with family and Friends at her cottage on Lake Scugog.
She was the loving wife of J.D.
LUCAS, former Solicitor for the
County of York, who predeceased her in 1986. Her love was endless
for her daughters Jane
GORDON, who predeceased her in October
2002, and her husband Ian of Burlington, Ontario, Carol
BOTTERELL
and her husband Frank of Claremont, California, her grandchildren
Bruce GORDON, who predeceased her in December 2002, Sarah
LEIKKARI
and her husband Rick of Ottawa, Douglas
BOTTERELL and his wife
Audra, and Kate
BOTTERELL, all of California, and great-grand_son
Ian LEIKKARI of Ottawa. Funeral Services will be held at Deer
Park United Church, 129 St. Clair Avenue West, on Tuesday, February
18th at 2: 30 p.m. If desired, donations in Muriel's memory to
the Canadian Cancer Society, 20 Holly Street, Suite 101, Toronto
M4S 3B1, would be appreciated.
B... Names BO... Names BOT... Names Welcome Home
BOTTERELL - All Categories in OGSPI
BOTTING o@ca.on.manitoulin.howland.little_current.manitoulin_expositor 2003-11-19 published
Vernon Oscar
ROBINSON
In loving memory of Vernon Oscar
ROBINSON,
June 7, 1927 to November 11, 2003, who
passed away at the Manitoulin Health Centre, Little Current. at the age of 76 years.
Vernon was a great advocate of self-government for First Nations,
helping many reserves in Northern and Southern Ontario to accomplish
this. He retired from the Department of Indian Affairs after 30
years. He then was a consultant for them the following 11 years.
Vern had a great appreciation and love for the outdoors, his work and
his church, ministering to others.
Born in Sheguiandah to Samuel and Edith
(WILLIS)
ROBINSON.
Will be dearly missed
by his loving wife Barbara and their children Loree of California, Richard
of Pentanguishene, Elizabeth of Arizona, Laura and husband Arther
SMITH of Tahiti, Christopher and wife
Heather
HORNING of Florida.
Will be remembered by grandchildren Sahara, Alannah, Sebastian, Eric,
Elizabeth,
Erik,
Emily, and Erin. Dear brother to Marjorie
SHEPPARD
(predeceased), Leighton and wife Irene, Jean and husband John
BRADLEY,
Shirley and husband Ed
BOTTING, Erma and husband Jim
BRADY,
Calvon and wife Betty and Merlin (predeceased).
Visitation was held on Thursday, November 13, 2003 at the Island
Funeral Home. Funeral service was held on Friday, November 14, 2003
at Community of Christ Church, Little Current, Ontario with Elder
Humphrey BEAUDIN officiating. Cremation.
B... Names BO... Names BOT... Names Welcome Home
BOTTING - All Categories in OGSPI