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Wartime Heritage
ASSOCIATION
Remembering World War II
Samuel Driffield Woodman
Flying Officer
J/29198
Royal Canadian Air Force
353 (RAF) Squadron
December 5, 1922
Conway, Digby Co., NS
June 24, 1942
Yarmouth, NS (No. 16 RCAF Recruiting Centre)
19
6 feet, 1 inch
Medium
Brown
Brown
Single
Drug Clerk
Church of England
Samuel Woodman (Father) Digby, NS
August 17, 1945
22
Kirkee War Cemetery, India
2. K. 16.
Commemorated on Page 577 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance
Displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on December 2
Flying Officer Woodman was the son of Samuel Eveleth Woodman (1875-1949) and Constance
Beatrice (VanTassell) Woodman (1879-1962), of Conway, Digby Co., NS. He was the second youngest
of eleven children.
He completed his grade twelve at the age of seventeen and was then employed as a certified drug
clerk at a pharmacy in Digby for the two years prior to his enlistment. He enjoyed building model
planes and was active in basketball, badminton and swimming.
Flying Officer Woodman served in Canada until October of 1943 and went overseas to the United
Kingdom embarking New York on October 13, 1943 and disembarking in England on October 19,
1943 where he served until July, 1944.
He joined 353 RAF Squadron in India on July 16, 1944. The Squadron was part of No. 229 Group, Air
Command South-East Asia and served as a transport unit.
On August 17, 1945 Flying Officer Woodman was the pilot of an aircraft (Dakota Mark III F.L.603) on a
scheduled transport flight with a crew of three and six passengers. The aircraft crashed at 8:00 am
near Raitali Village in North Dahanu, sixty miles north of Bombay, India. All on the aircraft were
killed. While the cause of the crash was undetermined it appeared that a break-up of the plane
occurred in the air.
Samuel Driffield Woodman
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