Seeking Information On Civilian Causalities From Pennfield Ridge Air Station
by G. Christian Larsen

    In memory of J. David Stuart, veteran of No.2 Air Navigation School, husband to Joyce and father to Ann and John, who continues to inspire me.

    This past October 1^st marked sixty-three years since Pennfield Ridge Air Station ceased to exist. So sixty-three years later, who remembers?

    For the past twenty-one months I have been seeking out the few of those who are left that can remember and asking them to share their stories. This has meant traveling across Canada to record the "living" history of the Air Station and Camp Utopia.

    Others, to preserve the history of the Air Station, have done a little work, but still more needs to be done. People drive along the flat stretch of highway that cuts its way through Pennfield Ridge and have no idea of the significance of this location.

    On September 23^rd, 2006 the Charlotte Fundy Kin Club, aided by three years of work by the late J. David Stuart, erected a memorial on Pennfield Ridge to remember the Pennfield Ridge Air Station and Camp Utopia. The Honour roll of sixty-one names of those killed at the Air Station and Camp Utopia was read aloud during this service, but subsequent research by me has shown seventy names for the Pennfield Ridge Air Station and four names for Camp Utopia in total thus far.

    Of those seventy airmen killed, twenty-two have no known grave having crashed in the Bay of Fundy while on training exercises. Twenty-one are remembered at the "Ottawa Memorial" in Ottawa, Ontario and the remaining one at the "Plymouth Naval Memorial" in Devon, England. This past August I visited the memorial in Ottawa to pay respect to those twenty-one brave souls. Of the remaining forty-eight who have gravesites across Canada, I have visited twenty-eight of them thus far.

    Still the listing of those killed only tells a portion of the story.

    I have currently documented one hundred and twelve airplane accidents and/or incidents from the Air Station. I have also begun to acquire the service personal files for those killed. All helps to tell a more complete story and remembers those killed as more then just a name.

    Besides the training casualties there were many others who passed through the gates of the base, completed their respective training and were subsequently killed in action. An example of this can be found in the "Nominal Roll No.39 Air Observers Course" which graduated from Pennfield Ridge May 25, 1942. This listing shows a graduating class of one hundred and nine pupils and subsequent research by me shows at least forty-five of those never returned home. This means approximately 41% of the class were gone at the close of the war.

    Another aspect of both the Air Station and Camp Utopia is that some service personal would meet and fall in love with local girls who would eventually become their wives. I have in my possession marriage records for twenty-two service personal from the Air Station and nine from Camp Utopia along with numerous newspaper stories as well. Still I am sure there are many others out there as well.

    Currently I am seeking information on the four known civilian casualties from the Pennfield Ridge Air Station. They deserve to be recognized just as much as the training casualties.

The first three people are:

• Louis Lloyd, age 35 of Crow Harbour;
• Allen John McCullough, age 49 of St. Andrews; and
• John James ("Jack") McCarthy, age 41 of Fairville.

    They all were members of a crew of the New Brunswick Electric Power Commission who were employed during the construction of the base in January of 1941. The crew had finished up for the day and was returning to their boarding house in Pocologan when the truck they were riding in overturned near George Baten’s residence further along the Ridge.

    The fourth is:

• Percy Allan Stuart, age 53 of L'Etang.

Pennfield Parish Military Historical Society office in Pennfield, NB

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