8 November 2026 · admin
RCAF Pilots from Woodstock
Woodstock, Ontario, produced a remarkable concentration of airmen for a city of its size — and one of the most important airmen in Canadian history. At least eight men with a solid Woodstock connection served as RCAF pilots in the Second World War, and seven of the eight were killed. The eighth was a First World War ace who went on to become one of the RCAF's senior commanders. This is their story — and the story of the Woodstock men named on the city's cenotaph, and of a Woodstock pilot lost in our own time.
Air Marshal George Owen Johnson
George Owen Johnson was born in Woodstock on 24 January 1896, and died in Vancouver, BC, on 28 March 1980, aged 84. He served in the Royal Flying Corps, with No. 84 Squadron and No. 24 Squadron RAF, flying S.E.5 fighters on the Western Front in 1917–18. He was credited with 11 aerial victories, and was awarded the Military Cross in April 1918 and the French Croix de Guerre.
After the war, Johnson remained in aviation. In 1920 he participated in the first trans-Canada flight. He rose steadily through the ranks of the Royal Canadian Air Force, serving as Deputy Chief of the Air Staff and Air Officer Commanding Eastern Air Command during the Second World War. He was Air Officer Commanding No. 1 Training Command from July 1942 — the command running BCATP training in southern Ontario.
Johnson was promoted to Air Marshal on 25 March 1945 — the highest rank in the RCAF. He was appointed a Companion of the Bath (CB), received the US Legion of Merit, and was made a Chevalier of the French Légion d'honneur. He retired from the RCAF in 1947, having shaped the wartime air force and overseen its transition to a modern Cold War service.
Seven pilots who did not come home
Sgt John Maxwell "Jack" Osborne
Jack Osborne was born in Woodstock on 24 August 1914, educated at East Zorra public school and Woodstock Collegiate Institute, and worked at Firestone and as an attendant at Woodstock Hospital before enlisting in the RCAF in June 1940. He earned his pilot's wings in February 1941 and was posted to No. 226 Squadron RAF on 1 August 1941. Nine days later, on 10 August 1941, he was killed in action — shot down in flames by a Messerschmitt 109 while attacking a ship off Calais in his Bristol Blenheim IV (Z7280) during a daylight "Circus" raid. His observer and wireless operator/air gunner were killed with him. His body washed ashore on Juist in the Frisian Islands a week later; he is buried in Sage War Cemetery, Germany. He was 26.
P/O Thomas Best
Thomas Best was born in Yorkshire, England, on 1 February 1918; his home was in Woodstock, where his wife Thelma lived. He served as a pilot with No. 214 (Bomber) Squadron RAF at RAF Stradishall. He was killed in action on 2 April 1942, when his aircraft was shot down by flak over the target and crashed at Niederkassel-Lülsdorf, Germany.
F/Lt William Wallace Murray
William Wallace Murray served as a flight lieutenant and flight commander with No. 416 Squadron RCAF, flying Spitfires. He was quoted in the press in May 1942 after a cannon-firing test and a brush with a Messerschmitt 109 over France in which he lost a wingtip. He was killed on 27 June 1942, aged 27. His Woodstock connection rests on a contemporary press report describing him as "of Woodstock, Ont." and on his name — "MURRAY, W.W." — on the Woodstock Cenotaph.
F/O Jack Holtze
Jack Holtze was born in Woodstock on 12 June 1917. He flew Avro Lancasters with No. 428 (Ghost) Squadron RCAF, No. 6 Group, Bomber Command, from RAF Middleton St George. On the night of 2–3 November 1944, his Lancaster X (KB782) was shot down on an operation to Düsseldorf and crashed at Solingen, Germany. Holtze and two crewmates were killed in the crash; the four other crew members baled out and were murdered by German forces — a documented war crime. Holtze is buried in Reichswald Forest War Cemetery. His headstone reads: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." He was 27.
F/Lt Stewart Kitchener Walker
Stewart Kitchener Walker, son of Harold Guy and Clara Walker of Woodstock, flew Mustangs with No. 122 Squadron RAF. He was killed in action on 15 August 1944, aged 27, on a fighter sweep near Chartres, France, last seen when his squadron broke to engage about 25 Messerschmitt 109s and Focke-Wulf 190s. He is buried in Luray Communal Cemetery, France. The Woodstock Cenotaph spells his name "WALKER, S.R."
P/O William Stanley Heal
William Stanley Heal, son of William Cecil and Ethel Rich Heal of Woodstock, was killed on 20 February 1944, aged 22, when his Airspeed Oxford (X6874) stalled during a steep turn and crashed at Burland, Cheshire, during night-flying training with No. 11 Advanced Flying Unit. He is buried in Blacon Cemetery, Chester, England.
W/O1 Harold William Smith
Harold William Smith was born in Woodstock on 4 May 1922 and worked as a Bank of Montreal clerk before enlisting in August 1941. He flew Douglas Dakotas with No. 357 (Special Duties) Squadron in Burma. He was killed on 7 September 1945 — after VJ Day — when his Dakota IV (KN584) was lost on a supply-drop operation near Mewaing, Burma; all four crew were killed. He is buried in Taukkyan War Cemetery, Myanmar. He was 23, and an accomplished violinist who had won the Federation violin scholarship at the Stratford festival in 1937.
A pilot lost in our own time: Capt. David Domagala
Capt. David Domagala was born in Woodstock on 22 August 1990, son of Marek and Anna Domagala. He joined the Canadian Army Reserve in 2008, graduated from the Royal Military College in 2016, earned his wings in 2019, and was posted to 450 Tactical Helicopter Squadron at Garrison Petawawa, flying the CH-147F Chinook. He deployed to Egypt as a liaison officer on Operation CALUMET and received a Commander Commendation from Canadian Joint Operations Command.
On 20 June 2023, aged 32, he was killed when his Chinook crashed into the Ottawa River near Petawawa during a nighttime training flight. The other pilot killed was Capt. Marc Larouche, 53, of Amos, Quebec; two other crew members survived with minor injuries. His funeral with military honours was held at Holy Trinity Church, Woodstock, on 4 July 2023. He is survived by his wife Shinea and their children Leila and Lucas.
The Woodstock Cenotaph
The Woodstock Cenotaph, at Graham and Buller Streets, lists the city's war dead by surname and initials only, with no branch of service. Cross-referencing the RCAF Association casualty lists, CASPIR and the Canadian Virtual War Memorial identifies the RCAF aircrew among them.
Six of the pilots above are named on the cenotaph: Best, Heal, Murray, Osborne, Smith and Walker. (Holtze, whose parents lived in London, Ontario, is not.)
Twelve more Woodstock men died as non-pilot RCAF aircrew and are named on the cenotaph: L. H. Amos (bomb aimer, 431 Squadron), C. H. M. Beaudoin (bomb aimer, 166 Squadron), A. J. Childs (wireless operator/air gunner, 12 Squadron), J. S. Dafoe (air gunner, 408 Squadron), C. S. R. Edwards (air gunner, 115 Squadron), D. G. Flood (air gunner, 115 Squadron), B. L. Haley (air gunner, 467 Squadron — the stone reads "HALEY, B.I."), F. Linton (navigator, 50 Squadron), H. F. Longworth (observer, 418 Squadron), W. M. M. Manser (bomb aimer, 102 Squadron), K. L. Roth (air gunner, 210 Squadron) and V. A. Utting (wireless operator/air gunner, 13 OTU).
Two more were groundcrew: Cpl H. K. Hambly, an aero engine mechanic killed on 20 October 1943 in the Liberator 3701 crash on Montagne Noire, Quebec — the worst single-aircraft loss in RCAF history, all 24 aboard killed — and LAC M. J. F. Good, a Woodstock-born aero-engine mechanic killed on 24 September 1944 as a passenger in Dakota KG653.
Other Woodstock airmen
Capt. William Richard Nixon, a civilian pilot from Woodstock flying with RAF Ferry Command, went missing on 17 January 1943 over the South Atlantic in a Liberator C-87, between Accra and Natal, Brazil, with all aboard; he is commemorated on the Ottawa War Memorial.
Two Woodstock airmen survived the war: F/O Gordon McCall, a bomb aimer with No. 428 Squadron who flew a 32-operation Lancaster tour and moved to Woodstock in 1954, and FS Cyril Barber, an air gunner with No. 434 Squadron awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal for pressing home an attack over Oberhausen on 1 November 1944 while severely wounded in the head.
No woman RCAF pilot from Woodstock has been found — the RCAF did not accept women as pilots in the Second World War. The closest figure is Flo Elliott, who grew up in Woodstock, earned her private licence in 1939 and commercial licence in 1940, was refused by the RCAF, and joined the Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service instead.
One name was deliberately left out: Harold Verne Schofield, a Kittyhawk pilot killed in Egypt in 1942, has only a Hillview Cemetery cenotaph linking him to Woodstock; his parents were of Toronto.
Woodstock and the BCATP
There was no British Commonwealth Air Training Plan station in Woodstock itself. The nearest were No. 14 Service Flying Training School at Aylmer, about 50 km south-west, where 4,144 pilots earned their wings; No. 1 Technical Training School at St. Thomas; and No. 4 Bombing and Gunnery School at Fingal. Woodstock's direct link to the plan was personal: Air Marshal Johnson helped plan and build the BCATP station network and commanded No. 1 Training Command in 1942.
Sources
Veterans Affairs Canada — Woodstock Cenotaph and Canadian Virtual War Memorial; RCAF Association casualty lists and awards database; CASPIR (Canadian Aircraft Serials & Personnel Information Resource); International Bomber Command Centre losses database; Aircrew Remembered; Commonwealth War Graves Commission; Heroes of Zorra; 434 Squadron history; Woodstock Museum exhibits page. Full research report compiled 8 November 2026.