Norman Earl Hagerty

This story is shared by the Trust with kind permission from Pete Colley, Curator, Wickenby Museum. Photo source: Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Canada.

Remembering Norman Earl Hagerty, Pilot Officer, pilot, RCAF, aged 27, son of G Elmer Hagerty & Mary Agnes Hagerty of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. He was born on the 22nd August 1916 in Belle Plain, Saskatchewan, Canada but his mother died when he was quite young and his father re-married to Lena Hagerty.

He attended Belle Plaine School and Belle Plaine High School between 1923 and 1932 and then went to Moose Jaw Technical School in 1941 and Hamilton Technical School, Ontario in January and February 1942. He worked for his father as a farming, truck and tractor operator between 1936 and 1941 and then worked as a Planer Operator at Otis Fensom Co, Hamilton from 1941 to 1942. He left to joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and attested on 29th April 1942.

His attestation record tells us he was 5ft 8in tall with brown hair and blue eyes and he enjoyed baseball, skating and cycling. His intial pilot training was at No1 Y Depot, Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was posted to the U.K. and embarked from Halifax on 26 August 1943. He arrived at 3PRC on the 2nd September 1943 and then went to 11 (P) AFU on the 28th September, 1534 B.O.Y on the 16th November, 11 Base on 8th May and 12 Squadron on 30 June 1944. He was killed on the 21st July 1944, on his first mission, attacking the railway junction and marshalling yards at Courtrai.