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Robert Howard Sneath
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Born at Elgin on 3 August 1920, one of five children of farmers George Edward Sneath and Mabel Edna Pinder, he graduated grade 11 from the Elgin High School in 1937 and completed a ten-week course at the Souris Agricultural School in 1938. When he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force on 17 September 1941, he was living and working on his father’s farm.
He qualified as an Air Bomber and was commissioned as a Pilot Officer on 25 June 1943. He proceeded overseas on 16 July 1943, was promoted to the rank of Flying Officer on Christmas Day in 1943 and joined 624 (Special Duties) Squadron at Blida, Algeria on 18 May 1944.
On 25 June 1944, Halifax aircraft JP240 and her crew, including Sneath, was seen to crash 18 kilometers south of Privas, France, during a special night supply dropping operation in support of les Forces françaises de l’intérieur (FFI). It was later determined that Halifax JP240 crashed and exploded near St Vincent de Barres. The remains of eight bodies were recovered and buried in the local cemetery. On VE Day 1945, flowers were laid at the crash site by five local villages, and, after the war, a memorial was erected on the farmer’s land where Halifax JP240 crashed.
He was buried in the Mazargues Cemetery Extension in Marseille, France. In 1973, the Province of Manitoba named Sneath Lake in his honour.
This page was prepared by Robert Nash.
Page revised: 24 May 2024
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