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Walter Russell
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Born at Winnipeg on 13 August 1922, the youngest of four sons of Scottish immigrants Alexander Russell and Helen Brown, he graduated grade 10 from the Daniel McIntyre Collegiate in 1940. He worked for James Richardson and Sons, Canadian Wheat Board, and Coca Cola Limited, and played hockey with the Winnipeg Monarchs. When he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force on 23 June 1942, she was working as a clerk in electrical appliances for Canada Westinghouse.
He qualified as a pilot on 25 June 1943 and was commissioned as a Pilot Officer. He proceeded overseas on 16 July 1943, joined 358 Squadron at RAF Kolar, India, on 8 November 1944, and, on Christmas Day 1943 he was promoted to the rank of Flying Officer.
On 22 January 1945, Liberator aircraft KH215 and her crew, including Russell, were reported missing during a special operation to deliver ‘guerrilla troops’ into Burma. Wreckage of the aircraft was found on the bank of a river near Tiseng, 140 miles south southwest of Mandalay, Burma (Myanmar). Local villagers collected the remains of the eight airmen who were killed in the crash and buried them in a communal grave. All efforts by the Missing Research and Evaluation Service to locate the grave were unsuccessful. Individual identification could not be obtained but the aircraft was positively identified.
He is commemorated in the Taukkyan War Cemetery in Rangoon, Myanmar. In 1995, the province of Manitoba named Walter Russell Bay in Bambridge Lake in his honour.
This page was prepared by Robert Nash.
Page revised: 24 May 2024
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