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The George Cross
was instituted to recognize extreme bravery and heroism in the face
of extreme danger. The award was not limited to military
persons (see this link) b ut
there were five Canadian military men who did stand out as
deserving.
The RCAF's first George Cross was
awarded in November 1941, to Leading Aircraftman (LAC) K.M.
Gravell, a wireless operator-air gunner undergoing training
at Calgary. LAC Gravell,
despite serious injuries, which proved fatal, gallantly endeavoured
to rescue his pilot from the blazing wreckage of their crashed Tiger
Moth Aircraft. He was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver,
BC.
The second RCAF George Cross was
awarded posthumously to LAC K.G. Spooner in May
1943. A student navigator with no pilot training at London, Ont.,
LAC Spooner took over the
controls of an Anson Aircraft when the pilot suddenly fainted. His
action enabled three comrades to bail out. Soon after, the Aircraft
crashed into Lake Erie. He was buried in his home town of Smiths
Falls, Ontario.
In August, 1944, Flying Officer
R.B. Gray of the RCAF, was the navigator of a Wellington
aircraft which was shot down into the Atlantic by a U-boat. Flying
Officer Gray and three other members of the crew managed to
extricate themselves from the aircraft. Despite a severe wound in
the leg, Flying Officer Gray succeeded in inflating his own dinghy,
and assisted into it his Captain, who had also been wounded. Cries
were shortly heard from another member of the crew, who had broken
his arm; Flying Officer Gray helped him also into the dinghy.
Although suffering intense pain, Flying Officer Gray refused to get
into the dinghy, knowing that it could not hold more than two
persons and for some hours he hung on to its side, aided by one of
its occupants and by the fourth member of the crew. In spite of
increasing pain and exhaustion, he steadfastly refused to endanger
his comrades by entering the dinghy, and eventually lost
consciousness and died. When it become light his companions,
realising that he was dead, were forced to let his body sink. Flying
Officer Gray displayed magnificent courage and unselfish heroism,
thus enabling the lives of his comrades to be saved.
Their gallantry and self-sacrifice is recognized
by the George Cross.
But there were many other GC recipients from
Canada, including:
Corporal James Hendry was posthumously
awarded the George Cross for the gallantry and self sacrifice he
displayed on June 13th 1941. He was serving with No.1 Tunnelling
Company of the Corps of Royal Canadian Engineers, who had been given
the task of digging the Laggan Tunnel to supply water to the British
Aluminium works at Kinlochleven, Scotland, when a fire broke out in
a powder house full of explosives. The twenty nine year old ordered
his colleagues to run to safety and attempted to extinguish the
blaze, rather than attempt to escape the inevitable explosion. The
huge blast also killed his colleague John Macdougall Stewart, and
seven more were injured. He was buried in Brookwood Military
Cemetery in Surrey. The Royal Canadian Engineers dedicated their
range control building to the corporal in recognition of his bravery
in 1994
Sergeant John Rennie was posthumously
awarded the George Cross for the gallantry he displayed in
protecting others after a training accident at Riddlesworth near
Slough on the 29 October 1943. Serving with the The Argyll and
Sutherland Highlanders of Canada (Princess Louise's), he was
overseeing a grenade throwing drill when a live grenade rolled back
into the trench his men were in. He pushed another man out of the
way, picked up the grenade and attempted to throw it to safety as it
exploded. He was mortally wounded but, by his sacrifice, had
protected his comrades from the explosion. A plaque in his
honour is displayed on the wall of the Armouries on the east side of
James Street North in Hamilton, Ontario
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