Flying Officer Lorne Herbert York
Lorne Herbert York signed his Attestation Papers for the Royal Canadian Air Force on August
22, 1940 in Keswick, Ontario at nineteen years of age. From the Attestation Forms and subsequent interviews we learn that Lorne was 5feet 10inches tall with a weight of 174 lbs. He had brown eyes and hair, did not smoke or consume alcohol. He liked to swim, skate and play Baseball. As a child he had measles and whooping cough. During an interview at the Recruiting Centre in Toronto it was recorded that he was a “good looking boy, keen, intelligent, smart appearance, bright personality, self reliant and capable, will absorb instruction and develop into a first class Air Crew material”. After enlisting, he was stationed at Guelph, Ontario October 27, 1941-March 10, 1942 to receive training as a Wireless Operator which he completed with 91.5%, 5th in his class. Then from April 13, 1942 to May 11, 1942 he received Armament Training at Fingal, Ontario and was awarded the Air Gunner Badge being 2nd in his class. He was now a ‘Flying Officer’ being a Wireless Operator and an Air Gunner, November 1942. Lorne initiated into Lorne Lodge No.404, Tamworth during his last ‘leave’ home before being sent overseas. By December 1942 he was overseas and posted in North Africa the Wireless Operator and Air Gunner on a Hudson aircraft. Read more here.
Dr. Lieutenant Thomas William Fingland MacKnight B.A., M.D.C.M.
After graduation, from Napanee Collegiate Institute he attended Queen’s University where he attained his B.A. in 1910. It was in 1911 that Thomas William Fingland MacKnight was initiated into Lorne Masonic Lodge No.404 in Tamworth. Then continued in the Faculty of Medicine to obtain his M.D. in 1912. He would spend the summer near Hearst, Ontario and the next year in Spencerville, Ontario assisting a Dr. McIntosh. In 1913 he passed the first Dominion Council held in Montreal (Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons). January 1914, he began his practise at Everett, Simcoe County which is at the intersection of Highways 5 and 13 near Alliston. He enlisted early in April 1915 but the Canadian Army Medical Corps was slow in processing his papers so he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and was immediately sent to England and in March 1916 posted to Gerard Freeman – Thomas Hospital Bombay Mumbai, India. Read more here.