With the recent 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, attention is once again focused on the Second World War.
Numerous young men (and some young women) from Innisfil served in the conflict, doing their part and, in some cases, making the ultimate sacrifice in the name of freedom. Gilford’s Albert Scott Neilly was one of them.
Albert was living on his family’s Gilford farm in 1939 when the Second World War erupted and shattered his idyllic world. Newspaper headlines screamed with defeats overseas, and young men from across Canada began to kiss their families goodbye to enlist in the military. Lou Neilly was determined to not stand on the sidelines of history. He’d enlist and do his part to defeat the evil of fascism.
Born Dec. 26, 1915, the son of Louis and Florence Neilly, Albert Scott Neilly enlisted on May 27, 1940, the same day as elder brother Louis Graham. Both men opted to join the Royal Canadian Air Force in the hopes of becoming a pilot.
Louis was commissioned a flying officer, completed 60 missions overseas, and received the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service and heroism. Albert’s military career followed a very different path.
Unlike Louis, Albert didn’t receive a commission as a flying officer. Instead, he had the rank of flying sergeant. And, unlike Louis, he didn’t serve on bombing missions over Nazi-occupied Europe. Instead, he served as a flight instructor. While the young pilots overseas received the headlines, flight instructors played a vital role in the eventual Allied victory. Albert would have trained hundreds of men for combat, an important if unglamorous task.
Albert was posted to 21 Elementary Flying Training School (EFTS) in Chatham, N.B. Under the expert eye of instructors, an EFTS gave a trainer 50 hours of basic flying instruction on a simple trainer over eight weeks.
On May 28, 1942, Albert climbed aboard Fleet Finch aircraft, serial No. 4454. The Fleet Finch was a light biplane trainer, well respected for its handling and ease of operation. Climbing in the second of the plane’s two cockpits was a trainee pilot.
The plane bounced down the runway and was airborne. It looked to be just another routine training flight — until suddenly it wasn’t.
Something happened that caused the aircraft to crash into the landscape below. Neither man had time to bail out and both were killed upon impact.
Albert was only 26 years of age. He was buried by his grieving family at St. John’s cemetery, Coulson’s Hill.
