Donald Mervin Eastman

Donald was born January 1,1928 and lived in Ottawa on 241 Carling Avenue, currently known as 241 Glebe Avenue. He was a member of the United Church and most likely attended Centretown United Church because it is the closest United Church to his home (507 Bank St.). Donald attended Glebe from 1937 - 1942 and then attended St. Anne college shortly before enlisting. He was very active, he played rugby, hockey, basketball, baseball and he also hunted, skied and fished. In a newspaper clipping it said, "He was an enthusiastic skier, fisherman and hunter."

He was a gardener for the experimental farm, but it wasn’t a solid occupation. He lived in a middle class household, most likely meaning he joined the army because he was young and didn’t have a solid occupation.

Before Donald enlisted in the Air Force and became a Royal Canadian Air Force officer, he attended Glebe Collegiate Institute from 1937–1942. After that, he went to MacDonald College at St. Anne de Bellevue. He mostly likely enlisted due to the fact that he didn’t have a firm occupation and that he was young. The events that could have contributed to his enlistment were Hong Kong (December 25, 1941), Dieppe (August 19, 1942), and the conscription plebiscite (1942). Donald was 21 (Dec. 9, 1942) when he enlisted in the RCAF. He spent nearly three years in training (1942–1944). He trained at Victoriaville P.Q. and St. Eugene and received his "wings" as a fighter pilot at Uplands, Ontario, shortly before V.E. Day, which was in early May, 1945. He was recommended to be part of the flight crew but became a pilot instead and flew a Spitfire XIV.

Donald arrived in England on October,14.1944 and died June, 9, 1945. So he was on or near the front for approximately 259 days. He was part of 83 GSU which was a group within the RAF's second tactical airforce (2TAF) during WW2. By the eve of the D-Day landings, 83 Group had grown to a strength of 29 fighter, ground-attack and reconnaissance squadrons and four artillery observation squadrons, grouped into ten wings. At the time of Operation Market Garden (September 17-25. 1944) it consisted of the RCAF's 39 Reconnaissance Wing, 121, 122, 123 and 143 Wings flying Hawker Typhoon fighter-bombers, 125 Wing with Spitfire fighters, and the RCAF 126 and 127 Wings also flying Spitfires. His job was to provide cover for ground troops and the Typhoon fighter bombers.

Donald was killed during a flight accident on June, 9. 1945. He was preforming a "sector recce" when he collided with a hemp cord which held up an aluminium sea maker MK III. The cord was suspended from a helicopter; which did not sustain any damage whereas Donald and his Spitfire were not so fortunate. There were nine witnesses to this event, and reports stated that he left Dunsfolds Station at 11.00 hours and levelled at 6,000 ft, the aircraft was next seen travelling from North to South over Lymington in a power dive. An aircraft flashed below a helicopter at approximately 11.45, which was flying at about 5,000 ft. Two miles south of Lymington. From the helicopter was suspended a hemp cord approximately 200 ft in length, and to which was attached an aluminium sea maker MK. III. The hemp cord and the sea maker were destroyed by the plane. An object detached itself from the aircraft at about 300 ft seconds before the crash and the time was approx. 11.45 hours when the plane crashed.

The group commander said that LACW Gardner made a mistake and did not distribute the Air Ministry Signal which stated that "No aircraft should fly within 500 yds. of the helicopter." Later the commander says "A mistake on the part of LACW Gardner and the Pilot cannot be held to blame. The blame must, therefore, lie with LACW Gardner." So it would seem that Donald was innocent in this event but LACW Gardner was more to blame for not distributing an Air Ministry Signal.

He was buried in Surrey, England, and lies in the Woking (St.John's) Crematorium.

Donald Mervin Eastman

Donald Mervyn Eastman est né le 1er janvier 1924 à Ottawa. Il a une sœur et il est l’enfant de John Mervyn et Mable Eastman. Il faisait environ 181 cm de haut et pesait environ 71 kg. Il vivait au 241 glebe avenue. Il allait à l'école publique de Borden de 1929 à 1937, l’institut collégial Glebe de 1937 à 1942, et Macdonald college de 1942 à son enrôlement à la militaire en décembre de la même année. Il travaillait en tant que jardinier à la Ferme expérimentale centrale de avril 1942 à septembre 1942. Avant d'enrôler, il joue au rugby, l’hockey, la basketball, et la baseball. Il était aussi un chasseur.

M. Eastman a appliqué pour devenir un pilote pour la RCAF le 7ème décembre 1942 à Ottawa. Il était un officier de bord et faisait partie de la 83ème groupe de la 2ieme TAF avant de mourir. Il avait 825 jours de service, et 426 jours outre-mer. Je pense qu’il a enrôlé car voulait être un pilote et supporter son pays. Il a étudié à l'École de pilotage militaire n°2 et à l'École de formation supérieure du personnel navigant n°1 de 1942 à 1944 avant d'embarquer à l'Angleterre la 4ème d’octobre 1944.

M. Eastman est mort le 9ème juin 1945 quand il était désintégré dans un accident mortel. A 11:00, il a décollé de la Station de Dunsfold pour faire un secteur de reconnaissance et d'acrobaties aériennes dans un Spitfire XIV NH.81O. La même journée, un hélicoptère avec un marqueur de mer en aluminium suspendu de 200 pieds de corde de chanvre volait sur les vasières proches de Lymington. A environ 11:45, un flash d’un aéronef sous de la hélicoptère était vu 2 miles sud de Lymington a 5000 ft, et l’avion de M. Eastman a plus probablement collide avec le marqueur de mer aluminium. L’avion était vu plongé vers le nord et il est tombé dans un champ adjacent du Walhampton Cottage. La signal du helicoptere, No.A.8942, n’était pas circulé à la station de Dunsfold, à cause de l'incompétence. Sur la 18 avril, un clerc dans le registre centrale a se trompe du mail pour la officier senior d’intelligence a les quartier général du station, et la signal du hélicoptère n’était pas envoyer au officier senior d’intelligence. Si le signal était reçu, tous les pilotes auraient signé qu’ils ont vu le signal et M. Eastman pourrait éviter l’accident. M. Eastman était incinéré au Crématorium Woking et son nom est sur un plaque qui commémore 119 soldats qui était en service en allegiance du famille royale dans la Deuxième Guerre Mondiale.

Works Cited

Donald Mervin Eastman- The Canadian Virtual War Memorial - Veterans Affairs Canada, https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/detail/2834394. Accessed 1 November 2023.

“Second World War Service Files – War Dead, 1939 to 1947.” Collection Search, http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=kia&id=10268&lang=eng . Accessed 26 October 2023.

Library and Archives Canada. “EASTMAN, DONALD MERVYN.” Collection search, 17 10 2024, https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record?idnumber=10268&app=kia.

McGill University Archives. “Donald Mervyn Eastman.” Le Service des archives de l'Université McGill, 2024, https://www.archives.mcgill.ca/public/exhibits/mcgillremembers/results_fr.asp?id=89. Accessed 27 10 2024.

ParaData. “(St John’s) Crematorium Memorial, Woking.” ParaData, 2024, https://www.paradata.org.uk/media/13398. Accessed 27 October 2024.

Works Cited:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._83_Group_RAF

http://www.archives.mcgill.ca/public/exhibits/mcgillremembers/results.asp?id=89

Edited by P. Towler.

The biographies appearing on this website have been written by students, roughly the same age as the soldiers they are studying, using primary source evidence from Library and Archives Canada, in addition to primary source documents from The Virtual War Memorial on veterans.ca. We welcome any corrections or additions you may have to these biographies.

'If we do preserve it, we honour them, and when we in our turn pass on, we will know that behind us lives a generation of free men and of free women to be the keepers of this great heritage of ours - Canada.'

- Ian A. McPhee, former student at GCI, 1937.

Glebe Collegiate Institute
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada

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