PREST, William Henry

NAME            PREST          William Henry
RANK            Sergeant                    64134                                                                                                                                      British Commonwealth Air Training Plan
UNIT              No. 1 Air Navigation School
                      Rivers - Manitoba                                                                                                                  Residence     Fergus - Ontario                                                                                                                            Born               June 22, 1920 - Kingsville - County of Essex                                                                                    Died               February 25, 1941          20 years   8 months
Cemetery       Stamford (St Johns) Anglican Church Cemetery - Niagara Falls - Ontario
                       II 4
Parents          Mr. Vincent and Carrie Prest - Lucknow - Ontario

William was born in Kingsville on June 22, 1920. The family might have attended Epiphany Anglican Church and once the family moved to Elora they would have attended St. John's Anglican Church and when he worked in Fergus he would have attended St. James Anglican Church. He took his public schooling at SS No. 3 Middleton from 1926-28, Ailsa Craig Public School from 1928-30 and Elora Public School from 1930-32. He then received his high school education at Elora High School from 1932-36 and then went to Fergus High School from September - November 1936. His father Vincent worked for the Bank of Montreal and it seems that he moved quite a bit before moving to Lucknow - Ontario He had successfully completed a Canadian Bankers Association Course. The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in Fergus hired him in November of 1936 and he was with them up to the time of enlistment. His hobbies were reading along with fishing / hunting and he enjoyed lacrosse, tennis, baseball, skating, ping pong and swimming. Growing up he had measles, whooping cough and the chicken pox.

Canada

He travelled to Hamilton to enlist into the Royal Canadian Air Force on May 13, 1940. He received the rank of Aircraftsman 2. At the time he was 5' 6" and weighed 132 pounds and he had a medium complexion with brown eyes and brown hair. He was assigned to No. 1 Manning Depot in Toronto - Ontario from May 13-26. His first posting on May 27 was to No. 1 Initial Training School in Toronto and here his average was 79% and placed 59 in a class of 96. On June 21 he was posted to No. 3 Elementary Flying Training School where he flying training average was 67% and his ground training average was 77%. He obtained the rank of Leading Aircraftsman while posted here. He also earned his Pilot Flying Badge while here. On August 31 he is posted to No. 2 Service Flying Training School at Uplands in Ottawa where is flying training was 67% and his ground training was 81%. When posted here he obtained the rank of Sergeant. Then it was on to No. 3 Training Centre in Montreal - Quebec on December 11.                                                                                                                        Very early in 1941 on January 5 he was heading west to Manitoba to No. 1 Air Navigation School in Rivers. Anson Mk 1  6250 crashed at Oak Lake in Manitoba southwest of Brandon at 15:00 hours while on a training
mission. Sergeant Prest was the 1st Observer/Navigator on this flight and the aircraft was flying in a snow storm and the visibility was very poor when it flew into the surface of Oak Lake - Manitoba which was 25 miles south-west of Rivers. Search parties from the surrounding district spent all night searching for the aircraft and its crew without any success. Then at 8 am on February 26 the wreckage was located by a farmer whos farm was nearby. He had seen the aircraft the previous day flying in the storm and at that time he was certain the aircraft would crash and he actually heard the aircraft crashed. He rode several miles on horseback to look for the crash site but was unable to because of the storm conditions. Once found the wreckage of the aircraft was strewn about the ice on the lake for 70 yards. All the crew were still in the aircraft. The bodies were returned to Rivers on    February 27.
Sergeant Prest died from body fractures and face lacerations.                                                                                  The RAF Anson W 1675 was turned over to the Royal Canadian Air Force and it became Anson 6250. MacDonald Brothers Aircraft in Winnipeg installs a winter conversion set.   

In April 1941 Mrs. Prest received the Memorial Cross 

He is honoured and remembered on the Lucknow - Ontario and Fergus - Ontario Cenotaphs. He is honoured and remembered on the Memorial Plaques of St John's Anglican Church in Elora - Ontario and St James Anglican Church in Fergus. He is honoured and remembered on the Memorial Plaques of Elora and Fergus High Schools. He is honoured in a book the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce published about the 186 who worked for the bank but did not return home. He is honoured and remembered in the Books of Remembrance found in the Centre Block of our Canadian Parliament. He is also remembered on the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.