Remembering World War II

Clifford Roy Gavel J/39494 (1942-1945) Pilot Officer Royal Canadian Air Force O-47626 (1945-1947) Lieutenant HMCS Warrior, Royal Canadian Navy Reserve September 7, 1923 Regina, Sask. October 7, 1942 Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver, British Columbia 20 5 feet, 7 inches Medium Black Blue Truck Driver Church of England Single at Enlistment Edith k. Gavel (Mother) Regina Sask. Jean Lorraine Gavel (Wife) (May 4, 1946) January 31, 1947 23 Halifax Memorial,Nova Scotia Commemorated on Page 595 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on December 18 Clifford Roy Gavel was the son of Roy Ferguson Gavel (b.1890 [Kelleys Cove, Yarmouth Co. Nova Scotia] d. 1988) and Edith Kate (Fowkes) Gavel (1889-1975). His father had first married Mildred Estella Huskins (b. 1894) and they lived in Kellys Cove. In 1921, Roy Ferguson Gavel was married a second time to Edith Kate Fowkes in Vancouver, BC. Clifford Roy Gavel had a step brother, Clarence Carlyle Gavel (1915-1976) from the first marriage of his father. Edith Kate (Fowkes) Gavel was born in Ibstock, North West Leicestershire District, Leicestershire, England. During the First World War Edith worked for the VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) of the BEF (British Expeditionary Force). Roy Ferguson Gavel enlisting at Yarmouth, NS on March 27, 1916, served with the 85th Battalion during WWI. Clifford completed grade ten at the age of seventeen (John Oliver High School) and was employed as a truck driver with E. W. Harris, (paint and wallpaper company) Vancouver, at the time of his enlistments. His interests were in model planes and participation in swimming, tennis and rugby. Enlisting in the RCAF on October 7, 1942, he trained in Canada and obtained his Pilot’s Flying Badge on December 10, 1943. He served in Canada as a flying instructor and staff pilot serving with Special Reserve, General List, as a pilot. His training records record: “Short wiry lad. Quick in his movements. Appears splendid aircrew material”. Pilot Officer Gavel transferred to the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve on June 14, 1945 and was appointed Lieutenant on September 30, 1945. He was assigned Squadron 825 on HMCS Warrior, an aircraft carrier loaned to the Royal Canadian Navy in 1946, on January 22, 1946. On May 4, 1946, Clifford Roy Gavel married Jean Lorraine Knowled (1925-2019) They had one daughter, Donna Ruth Gavel (b. 1947) On January 31, 1947 the aircraft in which he was a passenger crashed into the sea off Portland Island, 4 miles north-east of Patricia Bay, British Columbia. He is listed on the Halifax Memorial. The province of British Columbia honoured Lieutenant Gavel's memory by naming Gavel Lake after him.

Clifford Roy Gavel

Sources findagrave