Name: Hamilton Earle Prime Rank: Flight Sergeant Service Number: R/88205 Service: 418 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force Date of Birth: October 23, 1916 Place of Birth: Freeport, Digby Neck, Digby County, Nova Scotia Date of Enlistment: March 7, 1941 Place of Enlistment: Halifax, Halifax County, Nova Scotia Address at Enlistment: Tatamagouche, Colchester County, Nova Scotia Age at Enlistment: 24 Height: 6 feet Complexion: Medium Hair Colour: Black Eye Colour: Green Occupation: Banking Marital Status: Single at Enlistment Religion: Baptist Next of Kin: Annie D. Prime (Mother), Freeport, Digby Co., NS (at enlistment) Joyce Prime (Wife), Mink Cover, Digby Co., NS (after marriage) Date of Death: August 2, 1942 Age: 25 Cemetery: Bretteville-Sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery, Cintheaux, Calvados Basse-Normandie, France Grave: Section XXVII, Row H, Grave 4 Commemorated on Page 107 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance Displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on March 7 Hamilton Earle Prime was the son of Charles Owen Prime (1874-1953) and Annie Doris (Morehouse) Prime (1879-1957), and brother of Curtis Livingstone Prime (1908-1970). He also had a half-sister Violet Elizabeth (Prime) Litchfield (1903-1997), from his father’s first marriage to Mary Effie Shiliny (Forbes) Prime (1880-1905). Hamilton enjoyed baseball, hockey, tennis, and football. He went to high school in Freeport and completed university studies by correspondence from Queens University studying banking, commercial stenography, arithmetic, advanced English, bookkeeping, and accounting. He was working for a junior ledger-keeper and teller at the Bank of Nova from 1935-1941 before enlisting and noted that his reasons for leaving his job were, “patriotic”. Hamilton was single when he enlisted, but he later married Joyce Annie Gidney on February 21, 1941, in Brighton, Digby County. The two had a son Hamilton Earle Prime, Jr. (1941-1941). After enlisting on March of 1941, he was assigned to the RAF’s 31 Operational Training Unit in Debert, NS from May 22 to July 2, 1941. From July 3 to August 8, 1941, he trained at the No. 1 Initial Flying School (1 IFS) in Toronto, and then studied at No. 5 Air Observer School (5 AOS) from August 17 to November 8, 1941, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Next, he trained at the No. 7 Bombing and Gunnery School in Pauline, Manitoba from November 9 to December 20, 1941. From December 21, 1941, to January 20, 1942, he trained at the No. 1 Air Navigation School (1 ANS) at RCAF Station Rivers, near Rivers, Manitoba. He disembarked in the United Kingdom on Feb 19, 1942, was assigned to the No. 9 Observer Advanced Flying Unit (9 {O) AFU) on June 5, 1942, and then assigned to the No. 10 Observer Advanced Flying Unit (10 (O) AFU) on June 23, 1942, finally transferred to 418 Squadron on July 6, 1942. Hamilton was killed in action near Evreux, France, flying from RAF Bradwell Bay in Essex with 418 (City of Edmonton) Squadron (motto: Piyautailili (Inuit), meaning Defend even unto death). 418 Squadron's Douglas A-20 Havoc/Boston III aircraft No. W8264, with an aircrew of three, failed to return to base following a night intruder sortie to France. The other two flight crew members lost during this operation with Hamilton, who was serving as Wireless Operator/Air Gunner, were: RCAF Pilot Officer Ronald Garland Blamires, Service Number J/6951, of Aukland, New Zealand (Pilot) RNZAF Sergeant Harold Lewis Green, Service Number 404602, of Kaitaia, Auckland, New Zealand (Air Observer) He is interred at Bretteville-Sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery, and he is also memorialized on a family grave marker at the Freeport Brookside Cemetery in Freeport, Digby Co., NS.

Sources: aircrewremembered.com findagrave - Freeport Brookside Cemetery Canadian Virtual War Memorial findagrave – Bretteville-Sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery