Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth ..

As a follow-up to a previous blog from June 2019 ~ “The Lost Voices of WWII RAF/RCAF Greenwood” ~ 

https://southshoretidewatch.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-lost-voices-of-rafrcaf-greenwood_29.html ~

I was delighted to be invited to the Decoration of the Graves ceremony at Old Holy Trinity Church in Middleton, Nova Scotia. This is the location of twenty-four Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) graves from WWII and three other post-war graves.

The Decoration of the Graves Service is an annual event held since 1942. It was initiated in response to a letter to the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire (IODE) Rosemary Chapter in Middleton, from Annie Badham, of Kilgetty, Pembrokeshire, Wales, the grieving mother of Aircraftsman 2^nd Class Ivor George Badham who died 21 May 1942 ~ she asked if someone could please lay flowers on her son’s grave and continue to care for it.

Due to the Covid-19 situation, this year’s event was scaled down with certain precautions having to be observed.

In the presence of IODE Rosemary Chapter President Shelley Reycraft, Rev. Canon Lynn Uzans, Mayor Sylvester Aikinson, representatives of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 001, personnel from 14 Wing (Greenwood) including Colonel Brendan Cook, MSM, CD and Chief Warrant Officer Daniel Campbell, MMM, CD, Bugler Sgt. Jordan Cuming and Piper Cindy MacLeod ~ I was invited to do the Roll of Honour and recite the poem “High Flight”.

Samuel Easton Somerville, son of Samuel and Jean Somerville, of Glasgow, Scotland

Roger Leon Corcoran, son of William Roger and Clarice Patience Corcoran, of Whakatane, Auckland, New Zealand

Edward Charles John Collins, son of John Lionel Stanley and Myrtle Emily Collins, of Clermont, Queensland, Australia

After the ceremony at Old Holy Trinity Church in Middleton, I went with Dianne Hankinson LeGard, to place a rose at each of the CWGC graves at St Lawrence Roman Catholic Cemetery, in nearby Kingston, Nova Scotia

The poignant and uplifting poem “High Flight” was written by Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee Jnr., who was born 9 June 1922 in Shanghai, China, to an American father and British mother, who both worked in that country as Anglican missionaries.

In 1929, he began his education at the American School in Nanking. Two years later, he moved with his mother to Britain where he continued his education first at St. Clare's near Walmer, Kent and then later at the famed Rugby School in Warwickshire, where in 1938, he won the school's poetry prize.

In 1939 he moved to the USA and attended Avon Old Farms School in Connecticut. Later he earned a scholarship to Yale University, but decided not to enroll, choosing instead to enlist in the Royal Canadian Air Force in October of that year.

After his flight training at St Catherines, Ontario, where he passed his Wings Test in June ‘41, John now a commissioned pilot officer was sent to Britain and was posted to RAF Llandow in Wales.

On 3 September, 1941, he flew a high-altitude test flight at 30,000 feet in a new Mk V Spitfire. Overwhelmed by the flight, he was immediately inspired to put his experience into words.So, upon landing, he went straight to his quarters and on the back of a letter to his parents in Washington DC, he wrote the now famous poem “High Flight”.

He was later assigned to RCAF 412 Fighter Squadron, at RAF Digby in Lincolnshire, from where he flew a number of sorties over occupied France.

On 11 December 1941, during his tenth week of active service, Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee Jnr. was killed in a mid-air collision during a training flight ~ he was only 19 years old. John is buried at Scopwick Church Burial Ground, Lincolnshire, England.

Over the decades, John’s poem “High Flight” has been used widely by many ~ the words have formed verses of songs, it has been quoted by astronauts in outer space, been used in speeches by US Presidents and often mentioned at events like this. Today it is the official poem of both the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Royal Air Force.

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,

I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air...

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, or even eagle flew -

And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

Roll of Honour

Old Holy Trinity Cemetery, Middleton, NS

Leading Aircraftman   George Robert Pacey   RAFVR

Pilot Officer   Leonard Herbert Teer   RAFVR

Flying Officer   Rex James Wallis   RNZAF

Pilot Officer   Trevor Alfred Pittock   RAF

Pilot Officer   Allan James Rutherford   RAAF

Flying Officer   John Charles William Bruce   RAFVR

Aircraftman 1st Class   Samuel Easton Somerville   RAFVR

Sergeant   Arnold Longstaff   RAF

Sergeant   Henry Lionel John Wilkins   RAF

Corporal   Herbert Bentley   RAFVR

Pilot Officer   Claude Wynter Arthur Blick   RAAF

Flight Sergeant (Pilot)   Jack Nettleton Hopkinson   RAFVR

Aircraftman 2nd Class   Albert John Botcher   RAFVR

Aircraftman 2nd Class   Ivor George Badham   RAFVR

Sergeant   Harry B. Turner   RCAF

Flying Officer   Edward C. W. Hutt   RCAF

Flight Lieutenant   Percy Byng-Hall   RAF

Warrant Officer   Harold Braumont Uren   RAAF

Flying Officer   Jack Norman Reedie   RAAF

Flying Officer   Roger Leon Corcoran   RNZAF

Sergeant   Douglas Charles Andre Gillespie   RNZAF

Flight Sergeant   Regnald Bellhouse   RAAF

Flying Officer   Edward Charles John Collins   RAAF

Flying Officer   William Thomas Slaughter   RAAF

Sergeant (Pilot)    Kenneth George Fuge Harvey   RAFVR

Pilot Officer   James Gerald Brown   RAFVR

Pilot Officer   Maurice Albert William Henley   RAFVR

St Lawrence Roman Catholic Cemetery, Kingston, NS

Pilot Officer   (Belgian National) Albert Marie Louis Adhemar

De Steenhault De Waerbeek   RAFVR

Pilot Officer   Francis Clive Gaha   RAAF

Squadron Leader   Louis Alexander George Howard   RAF

Flying Officer   Hugh Edward McCann   RAFVR

Flying Officer   Patrick Flood O'Hanlon   RAFVR

Flying Officer   John Dermot Walsh   RNZAF

Warrant Officer   C. R. Arsenault   RCAF