John R. Marriott

John Marriott was enlisted on May 30th 1941. He was recommended by his boss and was not conscripted. After the recommendation from his boss John attended an interview where he made a good impression where they said Johns a “good type, has a sense of responsibility, should be good for the airforce”.  John  worked as a salesman for the Canadian general electric company in Ottawa. John was enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force unit as a pilot officer. In the two years John fought he didn't receive any awards or honors nor did he contract any diseases or major wounds. According to his medical documents John's vision in his right was 20/50 and in his left was 20/20, he required glasses. John was perceived as an “average” soldier.

John Mariott saw action in World War II as a Pilot Officer in the RCAF. He tragically died on April 27 1943 while carrying out a night-time bombing raid on the German city of Duisburg. John was part of a crew of eight, flying a Handley Page Halifax Mk II heavy bomber, on which he was a navigator. The plane came under heavy fire from German anti-aircraft on the way to its target, causing it to crash and be destroyed, killing all of the crew members, including John. John Mariott and the entire crew were laid to rest in the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, created after World War II in Kleve, Germany for Commonwealth servicemen.

'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.