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Thomas Johnson Makepeace
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Born at Basswood on 29 October 1922, one of four children of farmers Andrew Makepeace and Mary Blackwood, he graduated grade 11 from the Basswood High School in 1940. He was living and working on the family farm, and he was engaged to a Miss J. Payne of Winnipeg, when he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force on 13 February 1942.
He was promoted to the rank of Sergeant on 5 March 1943, the day he received his Pilot’s wings. He departed Canada for England on 28 March 1943, where he was promoted to the rank of Flight Sergeant on 5 September 1943. On 5 March 1944, he was promoted to the rank of Warrant Officer Class II and, on 15 May 1944, he joined 148 (Special Duties) Squadron at Brindisi, Italy.
On 30 May 1944, Halifax aircraft JD172 was one of 14 aircraft that departed Brindisi for a mission over Poland and failed to return. The crew of seven included Makepeace and another Canadian and may have included a passenger. After the war, it was determined that a Halifax, believed to be JD172, crashed on the west side of Lake Palic, near the border between Serbia and Hungary, on 30 May 1944. Locals buried the crew in a civil cemetery in Subotica, Serbia; they were later moved to the American Military Cemetery in Belgrade.
He was buried in the Belgrade War Cemetery, in Serbia. In 1973, the Province of Manitoba named Makepeace Lake in his honour.
This page was prepared by Robert Nash.
Page revised: 24 May 2024
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