Nanaimo Historical Society Public Presentation

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Thursday, November 10th, 2016
7:30 PM to 9:00 PM

The Last Flight of Avro Anson L7056. The Nanaimo Historical Society presents the documentary film, “Seventy-one Years: The Loss and Discovery of Avro Anson L7056” On the morning of October 30, 1942, Avro Anson L7056 took to the sky for the last time from a Patricia Bay airstrip with its crew of four, one RCAF sergeant and three RAF officers. The Anson and crew was not to be seen or heard from again – for almost 71-years to the day it disappeared.

Following an unsuccessful search the plane and crew were thought to be lost for good, mostly likely at sea off of the west coast of Vancouver Island, their names commemorated on the Ottawa Memorial for missing World War II Commonwealth air personnel who have no known grave. In October of 2013, loggers for Teal-Jones Cedar Products, cutting timber on a mountainside near Port Renfrew stumbled across the wreck of the Anson and remains of all four of the crew.

The following spring after the snow cleared, the Department of National Defence and the BC Coroners Office initiated the process to recover and identify the remains. This incredible revelation launched a chain of events that reawakened memories of the deceased and changed the lives of their families. This bittersweet story of Vancouver Island military history needed to be a matter of record, in all its elements. A son of a RCAF Patricia Bay Anson mechanic went to Cowichan-based filmmaker Nick Versteeg who in turn brought in local aviation historian, Robert Stitt, to get the documentary project soaring. Filming the project involved expeditions to the wreck site and flights to England to meet and interview surviving family members.

As a fitting act of closure, a memorial with full military honours took place at the Royal Oak Burial Park in Victoria on November 10, 2014. The crew are laid to rest in a Commonwealth War Graves plot along with many other wartime casualties from the RCAF Station at Patricia Bay.

The Nanaimo Historical Society invites the public to attend this film presentation hosted by the project’s historian, Robert Stitt.

Please join us in this tribute to the four airmen who gaves their lives on a remote Vancouver Island mountainside.

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The Nanaimo Historical Society is a non-profit organiztion. Founded in 1953, the Society's mission is to discover, preserve, and promote the history of Nanaimo and central Vancouver Island. Annual membership is $24 for an individual, $30 for a family, and $34 for an organization. Membership includes a subscription to British Columbia History Magazine.

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