Frank Kerr Orme

Frank Kerr Orme was born in Ottawa, Ontario on March 12, 1916. He lived at 27 Powell with his mother and father, Mildred F. and Frank L. Orme, and he was the second of four siblings: Elizabeth Gray, James, Edith and Dulcie Orme. A newspaper clipping from the Ottawa Citizen stated that the Orme family was well known. We know that Frank K. Orme’s father was deeply respected and loved by the community, because there was a very large attendance at his funeral. One friend of his said “[I] had the opportunity of seeing the pride and pleasure he [Orme’s father] took in the developing growth of his children”. As a result, we can assume Frank K. Orme was raised well and had an enjoyable childhood. He attended Glebe Collegiate Institute for 6 years, between 1926 and 1933. Collegiates were to prepare students for university, and Glebe was one of Ottawa’s two collegiates at the time.

Orme was 5 '11 and 168 pounds. He had blue eyes, brown hair, and a medium complexion. He had no visible scars when he originally signed up to join the military. However, in another medical examination before going overseas, Orme had a scar on the right lower quadrant of his appendix as a result of his appendectomy in July of 1940. This procedure is very expensive, so we can assume his family was quite wealthy. In addition, Orme was described to have had an athletic build; he played many sports. At Glebe, he was on the basketball and football teams. A headline in The Ottawa Citizen from 1931 stated; “6,000 See Glebe and St. Pat’s Battle for Title.” Nowadays, attendance at highschool football games generally consists of the schools involved. Nevertheless, this headline tells us that back in the 1930s, there was much excitement around high school football. Orme was a star wing on the football team, and as both a Junior and Senior, he and his team captured the Eastern Ontario Secondary School Association’s Championships.

Outside of school, he was a member of the Badminton Club of Ottawa. Several sources state that he was a sometime Badminton Champion of Ottawa. He occasionally skied, golfed, and sailed. Furthermore, he was a part of the Cadets and was a private Bandsman during his time at Glebe. He was described by various references as a hard worker that demonstrated a lot of initiative, including the Chief of the Air Staff. He was described as smart, quick, organised, confident, and mature in the report created after his Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) interview.

After graduating from Glebe Collegiate, Frank K. Orme continued his education at the university of Queen’s, taking a program of Chartered Accounting. He studied there from 1934 to 1938. During that time, he won a medal and received a cash award of $50 for his paper on “Business Investigation”, and received another gold medal for general proficiency. While attending Queen’s, he worked at A.A. Crawley & Co. as an auditor and chartered accountant. He worked there for a total of six years, however in 1939, he was captivated by a more lucrative position in New York. As a result, he moved there to work for one year as an accountant with Pire St. New York City. He worked there until May 18, 1940, when he moved back to Ottawa to enlist in the Second World War. Frank Orme was described as very eager to serve by several military officials.

During his time at Glebe, Frank had been a part of the Cadets, which most likely inspired him to join the army. The Cadet Program was an extracurricular that youth often joined to learn basic military training. An article that investigated the Cadet program in relation to war recruitment stated that Cadets were “one of the finest sources of recruits” for Canada. At Orme’s father’s funeral, he was described to have had a deep love for his country. This might have played a part in Orme’s desire to serve and protect the country his father loved so much. Frank K. Orme went in for his medical exam on May 16, 1940, which revealed that he was in good condition; so, he was approved to start his training to become a Pilot Officer. After enlisting, he started his initial training in Toronto which lasted from May 27 to June 21, 1940. He then took time off in August for an appendectomy.

He travelled to Windsor Mills, Quebec for his elementary training from September 2 to November 3 of the same year. He then returned to Ottawa to the Uplands airport (now known as the Ottawa International Airport) for his Service Flying Training. This was the final step in his training, and he was there from November 18, 1940 until January 28, 1941, when he received his Pilot’s Flying Badge. His father passed away during his training, on December 6, 1940, as result of a cerebral haemorrhage. Orme passed with above 80% in all three training programs, officially becoming a Pilot Officer. For his first overseas post, he flew to the Personnel Reception Centre in Bournemouth, (near London, England). He left Canada on February 23, 1941 and he arrived on March 6 1941. He was a part of the 21 Squadron in the RCAF and his service number was J/3739. We do not have much information on his major engagement as a Pilot Officer, but we do know his squadron went to Brielle, Maassluis, Spijkenisse, Delft, Hellevoetsluis. We also know his squad had a successful attack on shipping off the Dutch coast on August 18, 1941.

This picture demonstrates the places that the 21st Squadron (Orme’s squadron) went to, off the coast of Holland, from Air Crew Remembered: http://www.aircrewremembered.com/orme-frank.html

Orme’s crew, returning to Watton after the successful August 18 attack on shipping on the Dutch coast. Orme climbing from the cockpit, from Air Crew Remembered: http://www.aircrewremembered.com/orme-frank.html

On August 28, 1941, Frank Kerr Orme went missing, issued on the 68th RCAF casualty list among 55 other missing or dead airmen. This was the largest list of Canadian soldiers to go missing or die since the start of the war, according to an article in the Toronto Telegram written in September 1941. Pilot Officer Frank Kerr Orme and his crew left Watton at 14:47 for an operation against Rotterdam. They flew a Bristol Blenheim IV (serial No V6436 Code: YH-L) overseas. According to Germans, Frank's aircraft was shot down and crashed at Maassluis, Zuid, Holland, 14 km south-west of Rotterdam. Frank Kerr Orme (pilot), Stanley Frederick Maude (observation), and Albert Henry Collins (weapons) were all killed. Orme was 25 years and 5 months old. His will was written out to his mother, Mildred Fanny Orme.

Frank Kerr Orme is remembered in the Hook of Holland General Cemetery, located in the Netherlands. A section of the cemetery was set aside for soldiers killed in action, most of which were washed ashore on the neighbouring beaches. Orme and his crew were buried in Collective Grave 15 in row F. He was the only Canadian buried in the cemetery. His headstone reads: ‘Forever a little bit of Canada’. At some point, all graves in this cemetery were moved to a different cemetery, but we do not know where. Frank Kerr Orme is also commemorated on the Bomber Command Memorial Wall in Nanton, Alberta (see image below).

Collective Grave in Hook of Holland General Cemetery, from Air Crew Remembered: http://www.aircrewremembered.com/orme-frank.html

Newspaper clipping – From the Toronto Telegram October 1941. Submitted for the project Operation Picture Me

Newspaper clipping from the Toronto Telegram, Canadian Virtual War Memorial, https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/detail/2

Newspaper clipping from Globe and Mail, providing information about Orme’s life, Canadian Virtual War Memorial, https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/detail/2635087

Orme’s crew: Orme on the right, Gunnis in the centre, Collins on the left, from Air Crew Remembered: http://www.aircrewremembered.com/orme-frank.html

Newspaper clipping – Memorialized on the pages of the Globe and Mail.

Newspaper clipping from the Ottawa Citizen, providing information about Orme’s highschool and University achievements, Canadian Virtual War Memorial, https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/detail/2635087:

Orme is commemorated at Bomber Command Memorial Wall in Nanton, Alberta, photo of Marg Liessens, https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/detail/2635087

Works Cited

“Article clipped from The Ottawa Journal.” Ancestry, 9 March 2019, https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ottawa-journal/14727555/. Accessed 30 October 2023.

“Hook of Holland General Cemetery - World War Two Cemeteries - A photographic guide to the cemeteries and memorials of WW2.” WW2 Cemeteries, https://www.ww2cemeteries.com/hook-of-holland-general-cemetery.html. Accessed 30 October 2023.

“ORME, FRANK KERR.” Government of Canada, 2 October 2022, https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record?app=kia&IdNumber=27110. Accessed 30 October 2023.

“Pilot Officer Frank Kerr Orme.” Frank Kerr Orme - The Canadian Virtual War Memorial - Veterans Affairs Canada, Government of Canada, https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/detail/2635087. Accessed 30 October 2023.

Ray, Megan Doyle, and Adam Coplan. “Glebe Collegiate dials through the decades.” Glebe Report, 13 October 2016, https://glebereport.ca/articles/glebe-collegiate-dials-through-the-decades/. Accessed 30 October 2023.

Woodger, Kevin. “One of the Finest Sources of Recruits: The Canadian Cadet Movement During the Second World War.” Scholars Commons @ Laurier, https://scholars.wlu.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1976&context=cmh. Accessed 30 October 2023.

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