Gordon Keith McLellan

Gordon was the eldest son of David Gilchrist McLellan and Isabelle Keith …one of four boys and five girls who lived at 253 Mill St. East in Acton from the mid 1930’s to the 1960’s. David was born on May 30, 1910 in Perth City.

Prior to the war Gordon owned a butcher shop in Milton (West End Meat) and had been dating Ann Drennan.

His youngest sister Helen, tells the story of Gordon sitting at the kitchen table, chatting with his mother Bella, while enjoying her tea biscuits. It was then that his sisters Inez and Helen came home bringing the mail with them. It just so happened that there was a letter for Gordon from the Canadian Government. By this time in 1943, everyone knew what a draft letter looked like and no one wanted to get one. Draft letters were issued by the Canadian Government to call people up for military service. Part of the conscription process, which was introduced to provide manpower for the Canadian Armed Forces. These letters contained information about service obligations, including the location and duration of the service required.

Gordon took one look at the letter, holding it in his hands and turning it different ways, but not opening it. He glanced at his sisters who were looking at him with concern creasing their young foreheads and then he turned to face his mother “take this letter back to the post office and tell them that you are too late…tell them that I’d already gone to enlist with the Canadian Royal Airforce”. He looked at them all again, with their eyes wide open and their mouths agape and continued “I won’t join the army, they’re killing people on the ground. I’ll be better off in the air”. And with that he handed the letter to his mother and headed for the door…he still had time to get to the enlistment office before they closed that day. Gordon reached the door, opened it and turned back to his family, he opened his mouth to speak, found that he couldn’t, and turned and left.

And so, Bella shock and despair sinking into her bones, sat back down in her chair. Gordon was her first-born son, her favourite, although she tried to hide that fact from the other boys, and now he was the last one of them to join the war effort. This war had swallowed every one of her boys and she prayed, most fervently now that it would spit them all back out intact.

Gordon was successful that day in February 1943, joining the Royal Canadian Air Force. He would spend the next year in training at Mount Joliet, Quebec: basic, training, a 12 week Gunnery Course where they learned to load, aim, fire and clean Commonwealth .303 machine guns, Aerial Exercises where gunners practiced firing live ammunition on the 25 yard range and then moved on to firing the ground based aircraft gun turret and eventually the final firing step, where the gunners prepared for their duties in the air, ensuring they could effectively support bombing and gunnery operations. Finally at McDonald Manitoba, Gordon graduated a Sergeant Air Gunner.

Knowing he would be deployed soon, there was one last thing that Gordon wanted to do, so while on leave at Christmas 1943 Gordon married Ann Drennan on January 1, 1944. Shortly thereafter he left for overseas landing in England on March 10.

On May 15, 1944, two months after he had arrived overseas, Gordon and all members of his crew were killed when the Vickers Wellington X they were flying, upon returning from a “Nickel” leaflet-dropping operation, ran out of fuel and crashed at Ollerton, near Workshop. (“Nickel” was the code name for RAF raids against Germany to drop leaflets on German cities in an attempt to urge the German population to abandon the war).

Sometime later, Bella received a letter edged in black from the RCAF advising her of her son’s demise. It was the single most horrible day of her life. Everyone on the street knew what had happened, the mail deliverer having whispered the news as he went along the street. Bella stood on the sidewalk, waiting anxiously for Helen who was walking home from school. She did not want anyone to stop her along the way, wanting Helen to get home before anyone else told her the news. But Bella couldn’t even control that….a friendly neighbour, a nice lady, working in her front garden said to Helen as she passed by “I’m sorry to hear the news…please tell your mother we’re thing about her”.

Helen had no idea what she meant but quickened her pace home. It was then she could see her mother, straining towards her and waving her home. Helen’s stomach dropped and she knew that something terrible had happened. When she reached her mother, Bella hurried Helen inside the house and closed the door.

Sgt Air Gunner Gordon Keith McLellan was buried at Harrogate (Stonefall) Cemetery Yorkshire England. His new bride and his family left to mourn his loss.

Besides his wife, his parents and his five sisters, Gordon left three brothers…Max on active service in Italy, George in training at Camp Borden and John who had received an honourable discharge form the service and was residing in Hamilton.

Truly a Canadian Hero. His Story lives on. *Submitted in part by Marie Jocque South, niece of Gordon and daughter of Helen, additional information obtained from losses.interntionalbcc.co.uk, Ancestry.ca and Newspapers.com

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