Clarke, Bruce A.

Bruce A. Clarke of Lot 13, Concession 6, joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in August 1942, but was sent home to help on his parents’ farm until November 1, 1942. Then he reported to the Exhibition Grounds in Toronto, where he became a member of a precision marching squad that frequently represented the force at military funerals. After one of those funerals, Bruce took sick and soon found himself in an isolation hospital, where he was confined for three weeks with the mumps. That was followed by a bout with pneumonia, which involved a stay in the Christie Street Hospital in Toronto, where he was treated with heavy doses of sulpha to clear up the infection. At flight school in Arnprior he got sick again and was hospitalized in Ottawa. Eventually he got to fly twin-engine Cessnas at Centralia, where he was told his response time was too slow to be a fighter pilot. So he trained as a navigator at St. Jean, Que. As a commissioned officer, he was then sent to Calgary for commando training. At Christmas 1944, as the war was winding down, he was among those sent home for three months without pay. In March 1945 he was discharged and returned to the family farm. He died 2008.