Remembrance Day 2023 – Post Ceremony

Following our formal Remembrance Day Ceremony, we invited attendees to follow Piper Doug Swann in a procession to a different area of Mount Pleasant Cemetery. Together, we honour other military aviators buried at Mount Pleasant.

Four students from local schools read poems in front of nearby gravesites, and then attendees were invited to place an RCAF flag.

In 2023, we honoured the following:

Cadet Robert Ainslie Brown enlisted with the Royal Air Force in 1918. He was stationed at 4th Aeronautical School at Burwash Hall, a residence at the University of Toronto, and was undergoing training. He died of Spanish Flu at 26 years old.

Lieutenant Roe Robertson Fullerton who was born in Coldwater, Michigan on July 15th, 1893. He worked as a service manager with the Ford Motor Company in Calgary, Alberta before enlisting in the Royal Flying Corps. He was stationed at Leaside Camp in Toronto, an airfield constructed for training purposes, when he became ill and had to be hospitalized. He died on February 16th, 1919 in Toronto General Hospital of influenza, complicated by pneumonia. He was 25 years old.

Air Mechanic George T Morris was born in 1886. He enlisted in the RAF on July 17th, 1918. Morris served with the Engine Repair Park in Toronto. The Engine Repair Park was formed in the spring of 1917 on Atlantic Avenue. Morris died on October 26, 1918 at 32 years old.

Lieutenant Gustave Touchard was born in New York City on January 11th 1888. He came to Canada at some point in spring 1917 and joined the Royal Flying Corps RFC on July 4th, 1917. He was a tennis player before joining the RFC. He won the 1911 US Nationals Doubles Title along with many other tournament titles before his enlistment. He served with 44th (North Toronto) Wing of RAF Canada, a training establishment for American and Canadian pilots within the RAF and US Army, as a flight instructor. The wing was based at Camp Leaside and Armour Heights during the summer and winter of 1917, and finished the war stationed at Camp Borden. Touchard died as the result of a throat operation on September 5th, 1918 at 30 years old.

Thank you to Roy, Clara and Sam from Hodgson Public School and Jack from Whitney Public School for your words of remembrance.