1939-Sep-03 | Pilot Officer Ellard Cummings | 1 Air Observers School, RAF
When the German Army invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, the British and French governments gave them two days to pull back to their borders, but when they did not, war was declared and on September 3, war had come again to Europe. The Germans, of course, were prepared to ignore the ultimatum. The German navy, the Kriegsmarine, had already positioned their submarine forces around England and Ireland. Nineteen U-boats were just waiting for the word, including U-30, stationed northwest of Ireland. The unfortunate victim of Kapitänleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp, the skipper of U-30 was the passenger liner SS ATHENIA late at night on 3 September.
The conventional wisdom is that a Canadian stewardess aboard the SS ATHENIA, Hannah Baird, was the first Canadian casualty of the war, but that dubious honour actually goes to Ottawa native ELLARD CUMMINGS.
Ellard Cummings was born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario. He was the oldest of six children – five boys and a young sister. His childhood in the nation’s capital was quite idyllic, with summers spent at the family cottage on the Ottawa River. He loved sports of all kinds, and was adept with a number of musical instruments, winning awards for his proficiency in piano and trombone. He also loved speed – and spent time on his motorcycle roaring about the countryside at high speed.
Ellard had applied for a position as a pilot in the Royal Air Force’s short service commission programme and was accepted. Part of the deal was that he had to find his own way over to the United Kingdom to start. Along with a small number of other Canadians, similarly selected, he arrived in Britain in April 1938, abord the Cunard White Star liner Andania. After being trained at the flight school at RAF Sywell, Ellard was posted to Number 1 Air Observers School at North Coates in January 1939. He was finally commissioned on 6 April 1939 into the RAF and began his career as a pilot.
When war was declared at 11:00AM, Ellard was in the middle of flying a Westland Wallace Mark II (as seen above) to a newly formed Number 8 Air Observers School to be based at RAF Evanton, in the far north of Scotland. He had Leading Aircraftman Sandy Stewart, aged 24, from Glasgow as his gunner, sitting in the back seat of the two-seat open cockpit biplane. They were on the last leg from Dyce, near Aberdeen to Evanton but were flying too low to miss the 1350 foot high (411 m) Bruntwood Tap. The prominence was shrouded in mist and the aircraft did not clear it, resulting in a crash at 3:10 PM. Ellard Cummings was 23 years old.
They are officially recognised as the first military casualties of World War II. Wreckage of the Wallace is still there, left as a memorial to these brave young men. A memorial cairn was unveiled in 2012 with Ellard’s brother John (who was 6 at the time) attending.
As another footnote, Ellard’s other three brothers all served with Canadian forces in the war. Kenneth was shot down and killed over Leipzig in February, 1944 and died, aged 20 years old.
