Catching up to Lancaster FM104 at BCAM
Story and photos by John Chalmers,
CAHS Membership Secretary
posted November 2022
CAHS Membership Secretary
posted November 2022
A visit to Victoria BC late in October provided opportunity to visit again the British Columbia Aviation Museum (BCAM). My particular interest this time was to see Lancaster FM104, previously housed at the Toronto Aerospace Museum where it was undergoing restoration.
Following the decision in 2011 by a Crown Corporation to demolish the 1929 original de Havilland Aircraft of Canada factory building where the museum was located, the Toronto Aerospace Museum was evicted. Aircraft in the collection were then relocated to Edenvale Aerodrome airport, some 100 kilometres northwest of Toronto. The museum collection has since been rebranded as the Canadian Air and Space Conservancy.
I first saw Lancaster FM104 in Toronto in a visit to the aviation museum there in 2007. At that time, one of the volunteers working on the bomber was the late Philip Gray, who had served as a Lancaster pilot during the Second World War. Before leaving the museum, I bought a copy of his book, Ghosts of Targets Past: The Lives and Losses of a Lancaster crew in 1944-45.
It is a compelling read about his experience as a pilot trainee and as a Lancaster bomber pilot with his closely-knit crew. He and all his crew survived the war in dangerous conditions such as one of 1,054 bombers flying in their tenth operation in a bombing raid on Essen, Germany. Phil and his crew completed 16 operations.
Following the decision in 2011 by a Crown Corporation to demolish the 1929 original de Havilland Aircraft of Canada factory building where the museum was located, the Toronto Aerospace Museum was evicted. Aircraft in the collection were then relocated to Edenvale Aerodrome airport, some 100 kilometres northwest of Toronto. The museum collection has since been rebranded as the Canadian Air and Space Conservancy.
I first saw Lancaster FM104 in Toronto in a visit to the aviation museum there in 2007. At that time, one of the volunteers working on the bomber was the late Philip Gray, who had served as a Lancaster pilot during the Second World War. Before leaving the museum, I bought a copy of his book, Ghosts of Targets Past: The Lives and Losses of a Lancaster crew in 1944-45.
It is a compelling read about his experience as a pilot trainee and as a Lancaster bomber pilot with his closely-knit crew. He and all his crew survived the war in dangerous conditions such as one of 1,054 bombers flying in their tenth operation in a bombing raid on Essen, Germany. Phil and his crew completed 16 operations.
Born in Scotland in 1922, Philip Gray started combat flying as a Sergeant pilot, rising to the rank of Flight Lieutenant by the end of the war, having completed 16 missions as a Lancaster pilot with the Royal Air Force. In 1953-54 with the 2nd Tactical Air Force in Germany he served as a tow pilot for firing ranges. Later he acquired a private pilot’s licence which he maintained until 1989. After living in New Zealand after the war, he moved to Canada in 1990, and died at his home in Etobicoke, Ontario, in 2013. He wrote his personal account of wartime service, Ghosts of Targets Past, while in New Zealand and had it published while he was living in Canada.