Missing airman discovered?
Body recently found in Second World War plane that crashed in India could be that of Peterborough airman missing since 1944
A body found in a Second World War plane that crashed in India could be a Peterborough man who went missing in 1944.
The late Clare Pymer McWilliams was a wireless operator and air gunner in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF).
He was declared missing on June 1, 1944, when his RAF 117 Squadron Dakota aircraft didn’t return to India after a supply-dropping operation over Burma. He was 23.
Matt Poole, an amateur historian from Silver Spring, Maryland, recently contacted to say that McWilliams’s crash site was discovered. He’s hoping to locate relatives of Mr. McWilliams.
The wreckage was found by hunters in remote jungle in India, near the Burma border. The aircraft was identified by the engraved bracelet of Harold Tackaberry, McWilliams’s RCAF crew mate.
There were seven men aboard the plane, including an Australian, two Canadians and four Englishmen.
There are considerable human remains on the undisturbed site, Poole stated, with a strong possibility that Mr. McWilliams’s remains are among them.
Poole contacted Canada’s Directorate of History and Heritage in Ottawa, in hopes that they’ll travel to the crash site to recover the remains, honouring them with military burials.
With that in mind, Poole is seeking to speak with relatives of Mr. McWilliams or anyone who might know how to reach Mr. McWilliams’s kin.
Mr. McWilliams was born in Belleville on April 2, 1921 to Gladys McWilliams (nee Pymer) and Capt. Claude McWilliams, a soldier in the Royal Canadian Artillery.
He had two sisters Dorothy McWilliams and Norma McWilliams, who were 21 and 20 in April, 1946.
Clare was raised in Peterborough and studied for two years at PCVS before enlisting in Toronto in March 1941. He never married.
His family lived at 653 George St. During the war, the McWilliams moved to 418 Rogers St., later settling at 15 Wallace St. in 1946.
During high school, Clare worked as a clerk at A&P grocery and played basketball, football and swam.
Claude died in December 1951 at the age of 54 in Kingston. He’s buried in Little Lake Cemetery.
Gladys died in October 1958, at 58 in Peterborough.
Poole isn’t sure where Clare’s sisters ended up or if they married.
Clare’s name was inscribed on the Singapore Memorial to the missing in Kranj War Cemetery in Singapore. It’s also on the city’s War Memorial in Confederation Square.
He’d flown aboard Lockheed Hudson aircraft in Indian with RAF 353 Squadron in 1943 before moving to 117 Squadron, where he flew Dakotas as of December 1943.
NOTE: Relatives of the late Clare McWilliams, or anyone with information about McWilliams’s kin can contact Matt Poole at 313933-1727 or by email at feb2944@ aol.com.