Norman Godwin Baily
Norman was flying in a Handley Page Halifax VII Bomber on the night of January 28-29, 1945, with a scratch crew of seven when the aircraft was shot down over Stuttgart, Germany. He had flown 27 previous sorties. According to correspondence in his military file, his mother Mary was informed that Norman was missing and nine months later she was informed that he was “for official purposes presumed to have died on Active Service Overseas”.
On July 23, 1946, Mary writes to the Director of Estates from her home at R.R. # 2 Stewarttown… “there is no proof that he is dead and if he is alive, he will be back and want his clothes, and so I am asking you once more to send my son’s effects to me to Georgetown.”
In 1949 Norman’s mother Mary received a letter informing her that five men had been identified. She replied to the Department of National Defence asking that a “more thorough search be made for Norman”. She stated “that to aid with identification, Norman should have been wearing a RCAF ring that she bought for him, and she states that everything he wore had a woven name sewn in it…Norman G. Baily”. She goes on to say, “it begins to look like there is remote possibility of some of them being alive somewhere, and I would like a more thorough search made for Norman…he is my son and my two other sons are just as anxious as I, to know about him”.
Here…documented in his military record, a mother’s refusal to believe her son dead and her steadfast hope that her beloved son…missing for four years, might still be alive. Heartbreak, in blue ink and black type, for all to see and feel… even eighty years later.
Upon his enlistment on July 17, 1942, Norman reported that he was a banker with the Bank of Montreal in Georgetown, Stirling, Newmarket, Meaford and Toronto from 1930 to 1942. He engaged in golf, skiing and swimming and although he was interested in flying duties with the RCAF, he had no flying experience…even as a passenger.
His RCAF interviewer reported Norman to be “fit, keen, alert, banker type, well poised, capable, stable, quietly spoken and very courageous.” Norman stated that “he was keen to get into aircrew and would have joined earlier except for family reasons…mother’s support.”
Norman was born in Terra Cotta to Archibald Baily (labourer) and Mary Alice Godwin, who had immigrated to Canada from England in 1908. He was youngest brother to Edward, and Percy. The 1921 Canadian Census shows the family living in Stewarttown, in a home they owned, his father a watchmaker and Norman a student attending Stewarttown Public School. By 1931, Mary has been widowed and only she and Norman remained at home in Stewarttown…Mary a homemaker and Norman a Junior Clerk in a bank, earning $525 that year. Norman had attended Georgetown High School between 1925-1930. The family worshiped at the Anglican Church.
Flying Officer Norman Godwin Baily, Goose Squadron was buried in Durnbach War Cemetery, Germany. The inscription on his grave marker, requested by his grieving mother, reads “GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS”.
Norman is commemorated on the Honour Roll at Georgetown High School and at St. John’s Anglican Church, Stewarttown.
Truly a Canadian Hero. His story lives on.is Hi
*Information taken from losses.internationalbcc.co.uk, Ancestry.ca and Findagrave.com
