Name: John Basil Bond Rank: Pilot Officer Service No. J/12025 Service: Royal Canadian Air Force 113th Squadron Date of Birth: April 14, 1921 Place of Birth: Rutland, British Columbia Date of Enlistment: July 4, 1941 Place of Enlistment: Vancouver, BC Age at Enlistment: 20 Address at Enlistment: RR #1 Kelowna, BC Employment: Just out of school Religion: Church of England Next of Kin: Cecil Henry Bond (Father) Kelowna, BC Date of Death: February 26, 1943 Age at Death: 21 Memorial: Ottawa Memorial Panel 2; Column 3 Commemorated on Page 138 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance Displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on March 23 John Basil Bond was the son of Cecil Henry Bond and Margaret (Thompson) Bond, of Kelowna, British Columbia and brother of Ainslie Kenneth Bond, Peggy (Margaret Taylor, and Aileen Mary Bond. He was the youngest of the four children. John completed his high school at Rutland High School and Kelowna Senior High School in 1940 and finished one year of Normal College in 1941. He served as a Private with the Rocky Mountain Rangers (Kelowna) and as a Cadet with COTC (Basic) in Nanaimo, BC. prior to his enlistment with the RCAF. He participated in many sports that included football, softball, badminton, swimming and hunting, basketball, volleyball and running and jumping. During the summer months while at school he was a lifeguard with the Rutland Park Society and worked part time as a box maker with the Kelowna Growers Exchange. He completed his initial training in Edmonton, Alberta between September 9, 1941 and October 31, 1941; his Elementary Training at High River, Alberta between November 23, 1941 and January 31, 1942; and his Service Flying Training at McLeod Alberta. He completed his Navigation Reconnaissance Course at Charlottetown, PEI between July 6, 1942 and September 5, 1942. With completion of his RCAF training John was considered a confident and intelligent pilot with above average ability, well spoken, courteous, of excellent conduct and demonstrating sound and thorough in all his flying. He was taken on strength with 31 OTU at Debert September 20, 1942 and with 113th Squadron RCAF Station Yarmouth January 29, 1943. He was killed on February 26, 1943, the result of a flying accident about seventeen miles north west of Digby in the Bay of Fundy while on a air surveillance flight. The aircraft was a Hudson Mk III with a crew of four. The aircraft was piloted by Flying Officer John Basil Bond. Sergeant George Beverley was the wireless operator/air gunner James Lorne Kenneth Daly and John Nathan Treadwell were also killed in the accident. The cause of the crash is unknown. The Ottawa Memorial commemorates almost 800 men and women of the Air Forces of the Commonwealth who lost their lives while serving in units operating from bases in Canada, the British West Indies and the United States of America, or while training in Canada and the U.S.A., and who have no known grave Sources and Information: Commonwealth War Graves Commission Canadian Virtual War Memorial http://wartimeheritage.com/storyarchive2/crash26feb43.htm