Obituaries

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From the local paper but sounds like he was an interesting guy



SCHELLINCK Anton Albert (Doc) (Lt. Cmdr, retired) died on Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 in Fort Erie, Ontario, after a brief illness. Born in 1925 in Kindersley, Saskatchewan, he was a son of the late Henri and Lucy (Vandermoor) Schellinck. Doc was an extraordinary pilot. He managed to enlist in the RCAF and graduate as a pilot officer by age 17. He then served in the Royal Navy Fleet Air Army in England. He then continued his career in the RCN. As an exchange pilot in the USN, he flew in elite squadrons, piloting the most advanced jet aircraft in the world at that time. He served aboard all three Canadian aircraft carriers: the Warrior, the Magnificent and the Bonaventure. A navy pilot to the end, he flew the last plane off the Magnificent. As one of the original pilots in the young Canadian naval air arm, he was frequently put in the role of test pilot. He piloted 27 types of aircraft including Seafires, Cougars, Seafuries, Vampires, Hellcats, Fireflies, the Bell 47G and the Consolidated PBY 5A converted for water bombing. He launched the first Banshee initial deck trials on the Bonaventure and was the first pilot to survive a carrier overshoot and ditching of a Seafury. He was squadron leader of the first Trackers to fly across the Atlantic. In, 1963-1965, he was the commanding officer of VU33 in Pat Bay, Vancouver Island. Following his retirement from the Canadian Armed Forces in 1972

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[Bernhart]

DICK BRIMMELL 1928 - 2007 Richard Philip (Dick) Brimmell died suddenly at home while watching TV, of a massive heart attack, on Wednesday, November 28, 2007. He was the beloved husband of 56 years of Helen Bannerman-Brimmell: the dear father and father-in-law of Richard Chester Brimmell and his wife Andrea of Victoria B.C. and of daughter Louise Ellen Brimmell and her spouse Lynn Tripp of White Rock B.C., and cherished grandpa of Andrew and Marianne Brimmell of Victoria. Dick was born in Leicester, England, on August 4, 1928. The eldest child of the late Richard Dangar Brimmell and Phyllis Jones-Brimmell. The family moved to Ramsgate Kent where his father served as Borough Surveyor (City Engineer). Also surviving him are brothers, John of Mill Valley, California and Robert of Wimborne, Dorset, England and sister, Sheila Cole of Ramsgate. Dick apprenticed under the British Union of Journalists working on the Isle of Thanet Gazette in Margate, Kent. The Second World War soon drew him into the British army where he served in the Royal West Kent Regiment after training with the Irish Guards and the Officers short course at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. He then moved to the Water Transport Division of the Royal Army Service Corp and spent the rest of the war at Memai Bridge, Wales. After completing his journalism training at the end of the war, he took a job with the Royal Gazette in Hamilton, Bermuda, where he met his future wife who was already a member of the staff. They were married April 14, 1951 at her family home in Owen Sound, Ontario. They both worked for a time at The Oshawa Times Gazette before Dick was moved by The Thomson Company, owner of both papers, to the Guelph Mercury in 1954. He covered the city hall and education beats and became news editor. In 1960 he changed careers and became Secretary-Treasury of the Guelph Board of Education where he oversaw the changes for it to become the Guelph District Board of Education and later the Wellington County Board of Education. He was active in the Ontario Association of School Business Officials and was president in 1970/1971. During this time he kept his journalist hand in by writing the editorials for the Guelph Guardian newspaper. In 1973 he returned to the Guelph Mercury, where his wife was then family editor, and became managing editor. He greatly enjoyed the world of journalism and one of his greatest pleasures was creating the front page pictures for the April Fool's day issue, which always caused a stir. In 1983 he returned to public administration as the city's purchasing officer, again changing jobs to stay in Guelph, the city that he dearly called home. He was very active with the Ontario Public Buyers Association and also served as its president. Again, moonlighting, writing editorials and anonymous columns for the Royal Tribune (as it was then known) upon retiring from the city he put his name to the column, Tribe Trivia. He and Tribune editor Chris Clark created an outstanding short history of Guelph for the city's 175th Anniversary in 2002. This was one of many historical pamphlets that he created. Having been a Master Marksman in the British Army, Dick joined Guelph's 11th Field Regiment Royal Canadian Artillery where he captained the 11th Field Shooting Team. Always packing a Sergeant's tunic when they traveled so he could join his teammates in the Sergeant's mess after competition (although he ranked as a Lieutenant). He was very proud of being made a life member of the 11th Field Sergeant's Mess. He was a highly enthusiastic member of the 11th Field Officers Mess poker club "the Tuesday night prayer meeting". When the regiment reorganized, the poker club moved to the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 234 and all players of the "prayer meeting" quickly became proud legion members. He served on the Guelph Public Library Board and also became its chairman and then served as chairman of the Mid-Western Ontario Library Board. He was appointed by St. George's Anglican Church to be their member on the Guelph Cemetery Commission and served as secretary. A sports lover, he was a member of the Oshawa Cricket Club and then of the Guelph and District Cricket Club. In addition he organized its history, which was presented to the Guelph Public Library Archives. Dick was a long time avid member of the Guelph Community Boating Club. Tennis, badminton and curling are just a few of the sports he enjoyed but his true love was golf. He was a member of the Guelph Country Club for fifty years and a recent member of the Senjan Club. In retirement, since 1992, he greatly enjoyed being a member of the Guelph Wellington Men's Club and the St. George's Church Men's Club, the Evergreen Centre and reminiscing with fellow city hall retirees at their monthly luncheons. In earlier days he had belonged to both the Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs. A memorial service to celebrate Dick's life will be held at St. George's Anglican Church, 99 Woolwich St. on Wednesday, December 12 at 2 p.m. Flowers are gratefully declined. Anyone wishing to honour Dick may make a contribution to St George's Anglican Church or the Salvation Army. Arrangements entrusted to the GILCHRIST CHAPEL - McIntyre & Wilkie Funeral Home , One Delhi Street, Guelph (519-824-0031). We invite you to leave your memories and donations online at: Gilchrist Chapel-McIntyre & Wilkie Funeral Home


sounds like an intersting fellow, especially his involvement after the war

[syscom3]

Great Escape survivor dies aged 92

Article from: Agence France-Presse
From correspondents in Wellington
December 22, 2007 04:57pm

THE last New Zealander involved in the famous World War II Great Escape from a German prisoner of war camp has died aged 92.

Mick Shand, a Battle of Britain fighter pilot, died at his home in Masterton, near Wellington, according to a death notice in the Wairarapa Times-Age newspaper.

A specialist in low-level attacks, Mr Shand was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in September 1942 after his 60th sortie, but the same month his Spitfire was shot down while trying to destroy a train in Holland.

Imprisoned in the notorious Stalag Luft 3 at Sagan, southeast of Berlin, Mr Shand took part in the Great Escape of March 1943 when 76 RAF officers tunnelled their way to freedom.

Almost all the escapees were recaptured and 50, including three New Zealanders, were then shot dead on Hitler's orders.

Mr Shand, who spent four days on the run, said in a recent newspaper interview that it was only by the grace of God that he was not singled out to be shot after his recapture.

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Charles

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TO

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Airmen Missing in Action from Korean War are Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced today that the remains of two U.S. servicemen, missing in action from the Korean War, have been identified and are being returned to their families for burial with full military honors.
They are Col. Douglas H. Hatfield, of Shenandoah, Va., and Capt. Richard H. Simpson, of Fairhaven, Mich., both U.S. Air Force. Funeral dates have not been set by the families.
On April 12, 1951, Hatfield and Simpson were two of eleven crewmembers on a B-29 Superfortress that left Kadena Air Base, Japan, to bomb targets in the area of Sinuiju, North Korea. Enemy MiG-15 fighters attacked the B-29, but before it crashed, three crewmembers were able to bail out. They were captured and two of them were later released in 1954 to U.S. military control during Operation "Big Switch." The third crewmember died in captivity. He and the eight remaining crewmembers were not recovered.
In 1993, the North Korean government turned over to the United Nations Command 31 boxes containing the remains of U.S. servicemen listed as unaccounted-for from the Korean War. Four sets of remains from this group were subsequently identified as crewmembers from the
B-29.
In 2000, a joint U.S./Democratic People's Republic of Korea (D.P.R.K.) team, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) excavated an infantry fighting position in Kujang County where they recovered remains which included those of Hatfield and Simpson.
Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA and dental comparisons in the identification of the remains recovered in 2000.

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