Name: Frederick William Campbell Rank: Pilot Officer Service Number: J/94493 Service: 582 RAF Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force Date of Birth: January 1, 1915 Place of Birth: Highland Village, Colchester County, Nova Scotia Date of Enlistment: June 10, 1940 Place of Enlistment: No. 16 RCAF Recruitment Centre, Halifax, Nova Scotia Address at Enlistment: Hantsport, Hants County, Nova Scotia Age at Enlistment: 25 Height: 5 feet, 7 inches Complexion: Fair Eye Colour: Brown Hair Colour: Black Occupation: Pulp Mill Worker Marital Status: Single (at enlistment) Religion: Church of England Next of Kin: (Father), Pembroke, Hants Co., NS Date of Death: December 23, 1944 Age: 29 Cemetery: Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery, Netherlands Grave: Section XVII, Row B, Grave 7 Commemorated on Page 266 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance Displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on June 3 Frederick Wiliam ‘Ted or Teddy’ Campbell was the son of William True Campbell (1873-1949) and Bertha Lillian (Tomlinson) Campbell (1878--1965), and the was the husband of Dorothy Eleanor ‘Delores’ Frances (Glennon) Campbell (b. 1915). His father was born in Portapique, and his mother was born in Walton; both in Hants Co., NS. Frederick’s siblings were Vernon True Campbell (1900-1934), John Raymond Campbell (1901-1982), Clarence Dickie Campbell (1906-1988), Kathleen May (Campbell) MacDonald (1903- 1996), Florence Lillian Campbell (1905-1931), Jennie Ethna (Campbell) MacDonald (1910-2003), Helen Maude (Campbell) Ross (1912-2012), and Muriel Ruth Mary (Campbell) Butler (1921-2014). Frederick enjoyed playing ball, skating, dancing, swimming and enjoyed driving cars. He noted he likes to work around motors and take a great interest in learning about them. After his enlistment in December 1940, he trained in Canada which included armament training at the No. 6 BGS from January 19 to February 16, 1942. He departed Canada March 12, 1942, arriving in England later that month. He joined 44 Squadron on September 22, 1942. At the end of his first tour, which could consist of thirty sorties or more, Ted, who had previously been selected for training as an instructor, spent nearly a year working in this field from the summer of 1943 until June 1944. He was then given home leave and flew back to Canada where he spent much of it in Pembroke, Hants Co., Nova Scotia, with his parents. He also visited his married sisters, in Rhode Island (Kath and Jen Macdonald), and Helen Ross in Economy, NS. He departed Canada for the second time on August 28, 1944, and arrived in the United Kingdom September 5, 1944. On September 26th he was assigned to the Navigation Training Unit at RAF Warboys in Huntingdonshire until October 3, 1944, when he transferred to 405 Squadron. On October 11th, he transferred to 582 Squadron of the Royal Air Force. Frederick and Dorothy, an Irish nursing sister born in Galway, married in England on December 8, 1944, at the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in Action, Brentford in Middlesex, just 15 days before Federick’s death. Ted´s best man was a close friend and fellow air gunner, Allen Bourne. Frederick was serving as the Rear Air Gunner of 582 Squadron’s Lancaster III bomber PB523 (CO: J) and lost his life when his aircraft crashed near Opitter, Belgium. Taking off at 10:29 hours from Little Staughton, in Huntingdonshire, England, for an operation to Köln, Germany, Frederick was serving as the Rear Air Gunner of 582 Squadron’s Lancaster III bomber PB523 (CO: J). The aircraft crashed at Opitter, 4 kilometers southeast of Bree in Belgium. Frederick was killed, and the fate of the other crew was as follows: Peter Alfred Thomas, DFC (Pilot) Flight Lieutenant, Service No. 172593, RAFVR, Age 22 Heverlee War Cemetery, Belgium, Grave ref 6. D. 21 (Killed in action) Vivian George Hobbs (Flight Engineer) Flight Sergeant, Service No. 1816098, RAFVR, Age 20 Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Germany, Grave ref 30. E. 18 Killed in Action) William Ewart Vaughan (Navigator I) Flying Officer, Service No. J24199, RCAF Age 30; POW Ayton Richardson Whitaker (Navigator II) Flight Lieutenant, Service No. 100053, RAFVR, Age 27; POW Herbert Fuller (Wireless Operator/ Air Gunner) Warrant Officer, Service No. 1515746, RAFVR POW G. Fallon (Air Gunner) Sergeant, Service No. 3041124, RAFVR) POW (It was reported that Sergeant G. Fallon was confined to hospital due to his injuries but managed to escape). Pilot Officer Campbell was initially interred in the village churchyard in Opitter, Belgium, and later reinterred at the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery in Holland. His grave inscription reads, “Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord.” He is also remembered on the Bramber War Memorial at the intersection of Lantz Road and the Glooscap Trail (NS Route 215), near the Bramber Community Hall in Hants Co., NS. In a letter home to parents, Pilot Officer Campbell (Ted) wrote: “Dear mother, Dad, and all, this is going to be a rather hard letter to write but anyway, thought I’d better drop a few lines and leave it in my locker in case anything happens, which we never know when we leave to fly over enemy territory. If I don’t come back and you don’t hear from me, please do not worry, or feel too badly because this is what I wanted to do and I’m not afraid to share my life for my country, if it comes to that point. Remember dear ones at home, that there are a great many more lads besides me doing the same thing so please take this easy as possible. If anything does happen that we don’t meet again on this earth, I have confidence that we shall all meet again sometime in the new and better world. […] Keep your chins up, all my love, Ted”

Sources: Library and Archives Canada Canadian Virtual War Memorial findagrave aircrewremembered