“We serve that men may fly” The story of Lorraine Wilkins Sherrer
The Second World War was already raging when at age 16, Lorraine Wilkins left her hometown of Highwater to work as a maid for a Boston-area family. By the time she reached age 18 in 1943, she was determined to do her part for the war effort, following in the footsteps of her father, James Wilkins, who had served with the Canadian Grenadier Guards in France in the First World War.
Discovering that at 18 she was too young to serve in the armed forces in the States, Lorraine returned to Canada, enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force and was called up on Sept. 9, 1943. Her younger sister Barbara later joined up as well.
A whirlwind three years with the RCAF saw Lorraine stationed at bases in Moncton, N.B. as well as Mountainview, Brantford and Hagarsville, Ont. She finally ended up at the Photo Unit in Rockcliffe, near Ottawa, where she served until Aug. 27, 1946, working in the darkroom developing aerial photos as well as pictures destined to be sent to the press. Since the 1920s, the RCAF had been involved in an aerial survey of Canada in order to fully map the country, and with many of the young men being sent overseas in wartime, there was a need to involve members of the Women’s Division in completing the survey. As the motto of the Women’s Division stated: “We serve that men may fly.”
Meanwhile, Barbara Wilkins spent most of her years in the forces as a clerk in the RCAF post offices in Ottawa and Rockcliffe.
Lorraine worked for 14 years in Montreal following her discharge, putting her photographic training to work at a photo finishing shop for many of those years. In 1960 she returned to the Eastern Townships when she married Merrill Sherrer of Dunkin.
Now 99 years old, Lorraine lives in Ottawa, and still loves to share the stories of her years in the RCAF.