Last Post - Sergeant Alvin Eric Kidney

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(Scroll down to see further images of Eric Alvin Kidney)

Source: http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers

Alvin Eric Kidney, a young man from Davidson, Saskatchewan, attended No. 3 Manning Depot in Edmonton, Advanced Training at UBC, and No. 4 Aircrew Graduate Training School at Valleyfield, Quebec with Walter Henry Powell, Cameron Clare Campbell, R. F. Fewster, H. L. Czyz, D.E.J. Daniels, and Thomas Flemming Cronkhite.

He is the son of the late Alexander Kidney and Mary (nee Middleton) Kidney, of Sylvania, Saskatchewan.

The images at left show the closeness of the 7 friends, Kidney smoking a pipe, surrounded by six buddies; and Walter Henry Powell and Alvin Eric Kidney on a wall, Walter's arm around Kidney's shoulder.

Cameron Clare Campbell wrote in his journal of the accident that took this young aiman's life at Honeybourne in a collision with another plane over a bombing range.

He and his good friend Gordon Oswald Prime trained together in Honeybourne O.T.U. in the UK and were both killed in a mid-air collision. Please click here to read about Sergeant Gordon Oswald Prime.

Details of the crash are as follows:

"11/08/1944 Wellingtons LP618 and MF591, both of 24 OTU collided in mid-air over the Longden bombing range.

P/O J Shwaikoski RCAF was thrown out of MF591 by the collision and killed. LP618 lost a wing and entered a spin.

Miraculously, F/Lt S M Bruce RCAF managed to bale out safely before the aircraft hit HT cables and crashed at Hanley Swan. F/Sgt H G Round RCAF, Sgt L H Fraser RCAF, Sgt L M Lysak RCAF, Sgt L CLamb RCAF, Sgt G O Prime RCAF and Sgt A E Kidney RCAF all died in the crash.

Meanwhile, F/O W W McSween RCAF managed to nurse MF591 back to a crash-landing at Honeybourne, also saving the lives of P/O McGuire RCAF, Sgt Scott RCAF and Sgt Fullerton RCAF."  Source: http://www.couplandbell.com/marg/crashes1944.htm

Click here to see an image of the certificate issued by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in memory of Alvin Eric Kidney.

Click here to read the ""They Shall Grow Not Old" entry for Sergeant Alvin Eric Kidney.

Alvin Eric Kidney is buried in Brookwood Military Cemetery, a cemetery maintained by the Commonwealth War Grave Commission. Rudyard Kipling, the British author and poet lost a son in World War I. He selected the phrase, "Their Name Liveth for Evermore", from Ecclesiasticus 44:14. "Their bodies are buried in peace, but their name liveth for evermore."

Mark Lucas, British Photographer has kindly agreed to the use of his images below for this site.Click here to visit his website.

The image below from the Commonwealth War Gravees Commission states:
"He gave all that we might live, Sleep on Beloved."

Canada's Bomber Memorial contains the names of 10,063 brave Canadian members of Bomber Command who died during World War II. To see images of the beautiful Memorial at Nanton, Alberta, click here. At the middle of the third column of this panel one can see the name of Alvin Eric Kidney.