The Plane Crash
On a Saturday evening in June 1941, a young woman from Seeley's Bay accompanied some friends to the Golden Slipper Dance Hall near Kingston. Also in attendance was a group of British Airmen from the Empire Training School at Collins Bay.
The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan was a joint military air training program created during the second Word War. It remains one of the largest aviation training programs in history and trained nearly half the pilots and crew who served in the Royal Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force and New Zealand Air Force during the war.
A few days after meeting at the dance, one of the British airmen, ALA William McCulloch, was so smitten with the Seeley's Bay lass that he flew to the village to salute his new found love. While making a low pass over the village in a Fairey "Battle", the plan caught a utility wire, struck a barn and careened toward Bay Street where it crashed into a row of boathouses.
Unfortunately, the young pilot lost his life that day as well as a local carpenter, James Free and his 13 year old grandson, Harold Battams who were working in one of the boathouses.
