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The Royal Flying Corps

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This photo is of a young Ian Cameron of St. Thomas as a member of the Canadian Expeditionary Force Transport Division. As soon as he was able to, he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps.  Despite being shot down and imprisoned in the Holzminden prisoner of war camp in northern Germany, he was one of the few Canadian R.F.C. pilots who survived the war. Cameron later became Commanding Officer of the Elgin Regiment as Acting Lieutenant Colonel during WWII.

Eleven Elgin County men served as air men in the Royal Flying Corps (R.F.C.) in World War I. They were among the many Canadians who served as pilots, air gunners and observers in the R.F.C. until the founding of the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1918. Of the eleven local men who served in the R.F.C., only six survived the war. The exhibit includes the dress uniform a pilot in the R.F.C. as well as a detailed scale model of a tri-plane Fokker showing the anatomy of the wing supports.

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