Name: Rank: Service Number: Service: Date of Birth: Place of Birth: Date of Enlistment: Place of Enlistment: Address at Enlistment: Age at Enlistment: Height: Complexion: Eye Colour: Hair Colour: Martial Status: Trade: Religion: Next of Kin: Date of Death: Age at Death: Cemetery: Reference:

Gerald Burton Hamilton

Sources Veterans Affairs Canada findagrave.com

Gerald Burton Hamilton Flight Sergeant K/280563 Royal Canadian Air Force 153 RAF Squadron February 15, 1926 Truro, Colchester Co., NS October 1, 1943 Truro, NS Truro, NS 17 5 feet, 6½ inches Dark Blue Auburn Single Student Church of England Dessa Hamilton (Mother) Truro, NS January 22, 1945 18 Venray War Cemetery Coll. grave VII. B. 1-2 Commemorated on page 521 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance Displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on November 4 Gerald Hamilton was the only son of Harold Wallace Hamilton and Dessa (Kenny) Hamilton of Truro, Colchester Co., NS. He was the brother of Nora and Arlene Hamilton. Gerald attended Alice St. School between 1932 and 1943 completing grade nine. He was an L.A.C. with 77th Squadron Air Cadets in Truro between 1941 and 1943. His hobbies were model building, coin and stamp collecting. He played hockey, baseball, tennis, basketball, and badminton. He enjoyed swimming, skating and skiing. He enlisted with the consent of his parents with five other members of the Air Cadet Squadron, on October 1, 1943. Having completed training in Canada he was awarded his Air Gunners Badge on April 21, 1944. He embarked Halifax on June 16, 1944 and disembarked in the United Kingdom on June 24, 1944. In England he served with 18 Operational Training Unit and was assigned to 153 RAF Squadron on December 12, 1944. On the night of January 22, 1945, Flight Sergeant Hamilton was one of two Air Gunners on Lancaster I (NG185) with a crew of seven. The aircraft, one of nineteen from Squadron 153 at RAF Base Station Scampton, Lincolnshire was on an operational attack on Duisburg, Germany failed to return to base. It was later determined that the aircraft crashed at Hamborn, Holland and the seven members of the crew were buried in the Margraten Cemetery, 10 km east of Maastricht, in the most southern part of the Netherlands. The remains were re-buried in the Venray War Cemetery. Flight Sergeant Hamilton is one of the youngest RCAF casualties of WWII.

Gerald Burton Hamilton 3rd from from left standing