EVANS, Victor Raymond

SQUADRON:                     Wing 43
                                             79 Training Squadron                     
                                             Royal Flying Corps
SERVICE NO:                   153457            
RESIDENCE:                    Bayfield – Ontario      
DATE OF BIRTH:            October 1896.           
                                             Bayfield – Township of Stanley – County of Huron - Ontario
DATE OF DEATH:           April 25, 1918                      21 years     6 months
CEMETERY:                     Bayfield Cemetery – Bayfield – 
                                             County of Huron – Ontario 
PARENTS:                         Mr. William and Martha Evans – Bayfield - Ontario
Occupation:                        Teacher                                Religion:
Enlistment:                         November 14, 1917 – Toronto - Ontario
Enlistment Age:                 21 years     1 month

Victor would have attended a Normal School which focused on the basic practical training and was a less expensive and more accessible method of gaining his teachers certificate. Those who graduated from Normal School without Model School training were issued Third Class Teaching Certificates. Victor taught at S.S. #7 – Stanley Township and this school was located on Parr Line and 25 students attended school here. During that period the school master would have lived at the school.
As the war progressed pilots in the Royal Flying Corps were losing their lives faster than they could be replaced. The British War Office and the Canadian Government agreed that Royal Flying Corp training camps in Canada would be a good idea and that aircraft would be manufactured in Canada. The Canadian Aeroplane Manufacturing Company in Toronto was established where they built the Curtiss JN-4 better known as the Jenny. During 1917-1918 two thousand were trained at Camp Mowhawk. In the autumn of 1917 43 Wing became a composite training school providing both elementary and advanced flying training. Five squadrons went to each wing of which three squadrons provided elementary training and two squadrons providing advanced training.
Cadet Evans (Williams) was based at the Royal Flying Corps Training Base located in the County of Hastings – Township of Tyedinaga – Camp Mowhawk which was part of the Tyendinaga Mowhawk Reserve. This was a base for pilot training with men from all over the Commonwealth being here.
Camp Mowhawk was a aerodrome where three squadrons were based. It was built on 350 acres of land on the Tyendinaga Mowhawk Reserve.
Cadet Evans (Williams) would have been training to be a pilot in the JN-4 or Jenny. This was a 2 seater aircraft which was powered by the eight cylinder, water cooled engine with 90 hp. The cruising speed was 60 mph, its stall speed was 45 mph and had a maximum speed of 75-80 mph. The wingspan was forty-three feet, seven inches and it was considered large for a training aircraft. The cowling around the pilot seats was aluminum and fastened with copper screws. The rest of the aircraft was made of ash wood or spruce wood, piano wire and cloth from Irish linen.
The local doctor who dealt with a good majority of the deaths on the base was Dr. E. D. Vandervoort of Deseronto.
Cadet Evans was killed instantly by the propeller of the aircraft C-477 he had just landed and he sustained a fractured skull.
St. Andrew’s United Church in Bayfield was the location of the funeral for Cadet Evans. Most of the village were in attendance.