City of North Battleford Historic Archives had a researcher from Walpole, Mass. visit May 24.
Gordon Watson had been inquiring about the British Commonwealth Air Training Program approximately one year ago and decided he would make special trip to North Battleford to visit the area.
The training program began when North Battleford city council offered the community’s airport as an air training centre on Sept. 11, 1939, one day after Canada declared war on Germany. The program received 700 Royal Air Force trainees on July 22, 1941 and Watson’s father may have been one of them. Watson knew his father, Andrew Watson, had been stationed in North Battleford from 1941 to 1944. He remembers hearing stories and seeing pictures of his dad at that time.
Watson has donated 104 historical photographs of the training centre at North Battleford in 1941 to the City Archives. We are excited to have received these amazing images.
Special thank you to Darren Roberts, Gordon Parkinson and Jeff Olson who arranged to meet with and tour some areas of the Battlefords with Watson.
