Legion planning ceremony to honour young flyer

Maxwell Cassidy was 19-years-old when he was killed during training in the North Battleford area. He dated Elinor’s mother June Light, now known as June Florence, from Battleford, for a short period before he was killed near Delmas during a training exercise. He and June were in love and had discussed getting married after the war.

“They had only been going out for few weeks, but it was love at a first sight. They were having a whirlwind romance,” said Elinor.

The North Battleford area was a base-site for the British Commonwealth countries for air training during Second World War. Young flyers came here from all over the Commonwealth including Australia to train.

According to Elinor who has researched the history, more than 35 service members were killed in the Battleford area in flying accidents from 1941 to 1945, while NB was established as a training base.

Elinor has a blog, known as Wartime Wednesdays, where she also tells the story of Maxwell Cassidy.

Elinor believes the airplane in which Maxwell was training malfunctioned at the time of his fatal accident.

“He bailed out, but he was too close to the ground and his parachute didn’t open in time,” she said.

Elinor first started connecting with the Cassidy family after responding to a post from Janet Mears of Australia, on the North Battleford Facebook Page, asking about Maxwell Cassidy, who was Mears’s great uncle.

Mears had found a letter of condolence June Light had sent to the Cassidy family many years ago after Maxwell had been killed in the training accident. Elinor has since been able to send Mears some details about what Maxwell was like, provided by her mother June, now 92 and also living in Invermere. Maxwell was originally from Launceston, Tasmania, Elinor says in her blog.

When Mears sent Elinor a copy of the letter June wrote to the Cassidy’s after Maxwell was killed, Elinor said she “shed a few tears” herself after reading her mother’s words.

While Elinor and June are not able to attend the upcoming wreath-laying ceremony for Maxwell Cassidy, Elinor’s brother Rob Florence will be there on behalf of the family.

North Battleford Royal Canadian Legion branch secretary Louise Oster said the Legion is pleased to be able to have the ceremony to honour Maxwell Cassidy, and all veterans, as part of this special service.

Elinor Florence has written a book, called Bird’s Eye View, set in a Saskatchewan air training base during the Second World War that is a Canadian bestseller.

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @battlefordsNOW

by Angela Brown

Legion planning ceremony to honour young flyer

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