Karl McCormick Merriam J/45989 Flying Officer/Air Bomber 357 RAF Squadron Royal Canadian Air Force August 26, 1924 Truro, NS October 23, 1942 18 Height: 5 feet 10 inches Complexion: fair Eyes: brown Hair: dark brown Wolfville, NS (Halifax, NS) Summerside, PEI Student (Acadia University) Church of England Single Simon Gibbons Merriam (father) Summerside, PEI. April 1, 1945 20 Chittagong War Cemetery, Bangladesh 3. F. 9. Commemorated on Page 545 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance Displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on November 16 Flying Officer Merriam was the son of Simon Gibbons Merriam and Eleanor Esmonde Merriam, of Wolfville, NS and brother of Private Richard Kerr Merriam (#F82600) who served with No.1 Canadian Signal Reinforcements Unit overseas. Karl lived in Nova Scotia for eleven years and in Prince Edward Island for seven years. At Karl’s enlistment, his father was Manager of the Royal Bank of Canada in Summerside, PEI. Karl completed his education in Summerside between 1930 and 1942 completing his grade 12 in June of 1942 and taking employment with the Pictou Ship Building Co., in Pictou, NS during the summer of 1942 before enrolling at Acadia University in Wolfville, NS as an engineering student. He enlisted while at university and completed his air force training in Canada between October 1942 and December 1944. He embarked Canada on December 22, 1944 and disembarked in the UK on December 31, 1944. He joined 357 RAF Squadron on March 4, 1945, a special squadron, involved in the supply of covert forces behind enemy lines in South East Asia Command. On April 1, 1945 Liberator Aircraft KH 323 while taking off at night from the base at Jessore on operations appeared to lose power or stall and crashed about three miles from the end of the runway and blew up. When the crash party and medical officer arrived on the scene the aircraft had burnt out and all the crew were killed. The aircraft was carrying six army personnel of Force 136, three of whom were British Officers and three were Burmans. The Burmans were engaged in a secret mission. Karl Merriam was the Air Bomber on the flight. The crew were buried in the churchyard at Jessore with full military honours on April 2, 1945.