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Arthur John George Barnes
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Born at St. James on 15 May 1921, one of three children of grain inspector Walter George Barnes and Bessie Goff, he graduated from grade 11 at Kelvin High School in 1941. He was still living at home on Roseberry Street when he resigned his job as a messenger and mail clerk for the T. Eaton Company to join the Royal Canadian Air Force on 20 February 1942. He had been rejected by the RCAF in August 1940 because he was underweight.
He was promoted to the rank of Sergeant when he qualified as a Bomb Aimer on 19 March 1943. He proceeded overseas to England on 18 April 1943. He was promoted to the rank of Flight Sergeant on 19 September 1943 and joined 138 (Special Duties) Squadron RAF Station Tempsford, England, on 8 February 1944. He was promoted to the rank of Warrant Officer Class II on 19 March 1944.
On 28 April 1944, he departed RAF Station Tempsford aboard Halifax aircraft LL356, heading for a drop zone in German-occupied Belgium. The aircraft was carrying supplies for members of the Belgian resistance. LL356 never reached its destination, no word was heard from the aircraft or crew, and it was listed as ‘Missing on Operations’. A Norwegian pilot in a different Halifax reported that LL356 had been hit by flak over Eindhoven in southern Holland. The weather was ‘rough’, and it is assumed that the aircraft crashed in the North Sea. On 16 June 1944, the body of the Australian pilot washed up on the Dutch Island of Terschelling, where he lies in a Commonwealth War Grave.
He is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial in Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey, England. In 1993, the Province of Manitoba named Barnes Bay in McKnight Lake in his honour.
This page was prepared by Robert Nash.
Page revised: 24 May 2024
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