Evan Graeme Cameron passed away at Sunnybrook Veteran’s Hospital, 24 April 2010 as the result of a stroke. Evan was pre-deceased by both parents, Charles and Ena Cameron, his sister Joy McGougan, grandson Robert Evan Cameron and first wife and close friend Kathleen Pearl Cameron.
At the time of his death, Evan was survived by his current wife Dorelle McKellar Cameron, sons Evan and Graeme, brother Craig, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Evan grew up in the Point Grey Area of Vancouver with older sister Joy and younger brother Craig. Evan spent his summers attending YMCA Camp Elphinstone in Howe Sound and attended McGee Highschool from 1936 to 1939 excelling in Algebra, Chemistry and Physics. During the same years he formed part of the Seaforth Highlander Army Cadets and served till October 1939, earning the NCO rank of Signal-Sargent. His experience in Cadets led him to apply to the RCAF in 1939.
Evans high school principal and his Cadet Commanding Officer both described him as courteous, reliable, with superior ability, a character above reproach, amongst the best all around students, an example of smartness, very keen in his work, with an excellent physique and character. These traits continued to describe Evan throughout his life. Evan was accepted into the R.C.A.F on 12 July 1940 and from 1940 to early 1943 he trained and served as a member of the ground crew in Manning Manitoba, Calgary and Edmonton Alberta.
He met Kathleen Pearl Stewart in 1942 and in February of 1943, while on a 48 hour leave, they married. After a brief honeymoon the couple were stationed to High River Alberta where Pearl set-up the family home and Evan started his pilot training.
Evans first flight as a student pilot was on 24 February 1943, he flew his 1st solo flight 5 March 1943 and on 28 September 1943, he was certified as a Commonwealth Air Training Command flying Instructor.
In October 1943, he was stationed at Abbotsford, British Columbia to train pilots and between then and June 1944, he trained 511 students. Although he didn’t fly every day, he often made 9 flights a day, each time with a different student. In November 1943, his diligence and hard work gained him a promotion to Pilot Officer.
While Evan was busy training pilots and flying, Pearl had been busy with a very important project of her own. On December 20, 1943, their first son, Evan Stewart Cameron was born at Vancouver General. Stewart was delivered by the same Doctor who had delivered Evan in 1921! Evan’s heart was filled with pride and love, but there was a war on and so there was no time to stop. Stationed to Lachine Quebec, Evan began training in July of 1944 for transfer overseas. His wife Pearl and baby Stew went to live with her parents in Calgary.
From August 1944 through April 1945 Evan passed through several UK airbases for various training purposes: Cranage, Cheshire; Calveley, Cheshire; South Cerney, Gloucestershire; Charmy Downs, Somerset; South Cerney, Gloucestershire; Morton Valence, Gloucester; South Cerney, Gloucestershire; and Wellesbourne, Warwickshire. During this time he trained as a pilot on twin-engine aircraft the Airspeed Oxford, the Avro Anson and the Wellington Bomber and had risen to the rank of Flight Officer.
When World War 2 ended in 1945 Evan continued training and was stationed to Gaydon, Warwickshire, to train as pilot of a twin-engine Wellington Bomber. His training also included dingy drills and parachute jumps. As in previous life challenges Evan excelled in his training and his instructor commented that “F/O EG Cameron is 100% efficient in his cockpit drill.” Evan then cycled through English bases in Dalton-in-Furness, Cumbria; Dishforth, North Yorkshire; and Torquay, Devon, before being reassigned to Sea Island, Richmond, British Columbia where the RCAF paid for his studies towards a degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of B.C.
Along with 80 other veterans and their families, Evan, Pearl and Stew lived in a trailer park at UBC near the University Experimental Farm. Washrooms, showers and laundry were available in a community Quonset hut. The Cameron trailer was 6 feet wide and 14 feet long. Evan built a roof over the trailer and a coal-fired furnace beside the trailer to pipe in warm air. He also made periodic trips on his motorcycle around Vancouver to purchase ingredients for the ‘still’ the veterans ran on the dry campus. The RCMP, respecting their veteran status, ignored the still.
During his time at UBC Evan maintained his Flight Officer Status and served with the City of New Westminster 442 reserve squadron flying Harvards to maintain his flight pay status and training on De Haviland Vampire jets becoming one of Canada’s first fighter jet pilots.
Evan made frequent flights in the Vampire between Winnipeg and Vancouver and often flew to small town airfields to performing solo in local airshows impressing citizens with the air force’s advanced, futuristic technology: the fighter jet.
In March 1950, Evan signed “The Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer, Obligation” (Obligated Engineer No. 1,917) and in May 1950, graduated from the Applied Science Faculty of the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Mechanical Engineering. Immediately after graduation Evan was returned to Regular Forces status and stationed to Calgary where he resumed his flight training.
In December 1950 the family was stationed to Camp Borden and in July of 1951, while the family was vacationing at the McKeller estate on Shanty Bay, Ontario, Pearl was rushed to a hospital in nearby Barrie where their second son, Richard Graeme Cameron, was born. The family stayed at Shanty Bay into the winter and became close friends with the McKellar family returning frequently throughout the years for vacations.
Post war the family was posted to CFB Ottawa, St Basil, St Hubert, Patterson AFB Ohio and at Canadian Joint Staff Headquarters in Washington DC. In Washington Squadron Leader Cameron and his wife Pearl hosted numerous parties for other families whose husbands were taking courses. The 2 boys hosted the children in Stew and Graeme’s bedroom where US astronaut Gus Grissom sometimes entertained them before he moved onto the adult party. At a ceremony held in his honor, at Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio in August 1956, Squadron Leader Evan G. Cameron graduated the USAF Institute of Technology Engineering Sciences Program (Aero-Mechanical) and received The Air University Badge.
The family returned to Ottawa in1956 and Evan continued flying. During his military career Evan flew the Fairchild Cornell, Airspeed Oxford, de Haviland Tiger Moth, Fleet Finch, North American Harvard, Canso Flying Boat, Avro Anson, Wellington Bomber, de Haviland Vampire fighter jet, Dakota transport, Lockheed T-33 Fighter Jet, and the Beech D18S Expediter trainer and transport. Total flying time in the course of his military career equaled 1,542:25 hours or approximately 64 days in the sky. Throughout the 1950’s and early 1960’s Evan’s Engineering expertise took him to Europe and the US to source and assist in determining the best aircraft and aircraft parts for use in Canadian Air Force Aircraft including Lockheed 104 Starfighter.
In the early 1960’s many changes took place in the Cameron home. Their oldest son Stewart joined the RCAF and was posted to Europe, Evan and Pearl divorced and Evan was posted to CFAB Toronto. Pearl and Graeme moved to Toronto for a short time and then returned to Vancouver.
In Toronto Evan rekindled a friendship with Dorelle McKellar and not long afterward they were married. Evan was able to regularly visit the McKellar estate on Shanty Bay where his youngest son Graeme had been born.
At CFAB Toronto Evan undertook a variety of challenging research work, which included designing a new method of testing colour vision and inventing a cockpit seat for helicopter pilots which would prevent damage to their spines in event of a crash landing below auto-rotation height. He was also involved in the ongoing conspiracy to hide the nose and cockpit section of an Avro Arrow labelling it as a seldom-used “high altitude test chamber” kept under wraps in the basement of one CAF building or another somewhere in Toronto. This nose and cockpit is now on display at the National Air Museum in Ottawa.
Evan retired in 1971 at a well attended Mess dinner and as a parting gift presented the CFB Toronto Officers Mess with a beautiful mahogany showcase containing the retired ensigns of the Royal Canadian Navy, The Royal Canadian Airforce, and the Canadian Army. His Certificate of Service signed by the Chief of the Defence Staff reads, “Presented to Major EG Cameron, the Canadian Armed Forces acknowledge with sincere appreciation your faithful and devoted service in promoting its aims and upholding its ideals during your years of service 12 July 1940 – 21 April 1971.”
After retirement he managed a mall, served as chief engineer in a company specializing in producing unique, customized construction equipment and vehicles and in later years taught computer programming for adults and seniors at a local college. When college authorities realized he was in his seventies and that their liability insurance didn’t cover him, they had to let him go. He continued to keep busy with many volunteer organizations, working for military members as part of the FSCA and travelling to the west coast to visit family and friends. Evan and Pearl remained close friends and he visited and they supported each other until her death in 1998.
In his final years Evan developed dementia and moved into Sunnybrook Veterans Hospital in Toronto where he frequently would step up to the desk, sign his name in the guest register and remind staff of his rank and that he had ‘finished resting and training but was required on the flight line’.
He was a man with high standards who enjoyed precision and used that talent not only in his career but in many aspects of his life including the manufacture of couch cushions for the Toronto family home. Throughout his life he was held in high regard by all who met him and he was a fair and stern father who instilled in his boys a strong sense of dedication, calm, loyalty and a dry and quirky sense of humour.