Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Pilot Officer J. N. Treadwell, Royal Canadian Air Force, who was killed in a reconnaissance flight over the Bay of Fundy, off St. John, in February 1943

1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Canadian Voluntary Service Medal 1939-45, with overseas clasp; War Medal, silver, together with the recipient’s Canadian Memorial Cross, G.VI.R., the reverse officially inscribed, ‘P.O. J. N. Treadwell, R 13747’, extremely fine (5) £150-200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Fine Collection of Awards to the Canadian Forces.

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John Nathan Treadwell was born in St. John, New Brunswick, on 6 April 1917. A District Representative for the General Motors Corporation at London, Ontario, he enlisted in the Canadian Fusiliers in January 1941, but transferred to the Royal Canadian Air Force after completion of his basic training that August.

Having then qualified as an Observer, he was commissioned as a Pilot Officer and posted to No. 113 (Bomber Reconnaissance) Squadron (R.C.A.F.) at Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, in January 1943. A few weeks later, on 26 February, and having completed around a dozen patrols, his Hudson was seen to burst into flames and dive into the water of the Bay of Fundy - four days earlier the repair logs for the aircraft had noted a badly leaking engine primer.

The son of James and Rose Treadwell, and the husband of Mary Treadwell, he was 25 years of age and has no known grave, being commemorated on the Ottawa Memorial; sold with copied service papers.