John Goodwill MacPhee      J36326     Flying Officer (Navigator)

Flying Officer John Goodwill MacPhee was born April 23, 1922, in Toronto, the son of William Wallace MacPhee and Bessie Catherine (MacLeod) MacPhee, and was the youngest of 7 children. He grew up on Linnsmore Cres. in Toronto, Ontario and attended Bowmore Road Public School (1933-1935) and Riverdale Collegiate (1935-1940). As a student, he was very active in track and field, and basketball. He took further courses in commercial illustration and worked in the shipping room of Ginn Publishing Company of Toronto. He was interested in the arts and sketching.

He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force on June 25, 1942, and received commission and wings on October 1, 1943, and went overseas 2 weeks later. John had married Lillian Mae MacKenzie on April 10,  1943, at St. Stephen’s United Church, Toronto. He was stationed in England and was assigned to No. 640 Squadron RAF, a heavy bomber squadron of the Royal Air Force, located at RAF Leconfield, East Riding, Yorkshire. He served as a navigator on RAF Halifax III Bomber, #MZ925 C8-F.

On October 6, 1944, John Goodwill MacPhee and his crew took off at 14:28hrs for an operational sortie against Sterkrade, and the Ruhrchemie AG Synthetic oil plant in Germany. The crew was to return at 19:04 hrs. However, they never came back and were believed to be lost over Germany. He was listed as missing in action the following day (October 7,  1944) and declared dead many months later.

Five years later, his widow received a letter from the Department of National Defence, dated June 15, 1949, advising the following:  “As the result of exhumation work carried out in the Dusseldorf North Cemetery (Germany), the graves of all members of John’s crew, with the exception of two Sergeants were located. John Goodwill MacPhee and the members of the crew were moved to The Reichswald Forest War Cemetery in Kleve, Germany where they lay at rest in adjacent graves.”

We thank him for his service.

We will remember them.