535-03 Page 18- —WardLooks Over
Warden Congratulated I . .____
Flying Career Mementoes
Reeve C. D. Sutor, Blenheim, defeated by one vote in the
election for Oxford County's warden is shown left with
ex -Warden H. R. McBeth, centre, congratulating neW
Warden Thomas Fellow, West Oxford.
.16 . at - S-
Oxford's 1953 war en, R eve Thomas Fellow, prominent
West Oxford farmer, signs the declaration of office,
above right; County Clerk L. K. Coles is on the left.
(Photos by Free Press Woodstock Bureau).
Oxto rd Man, 62, Tests
I Says He
1s WOODSTOCK, Jan. 19 — Cap-_
■ tain Thomas F. Williams, MC,
' VM (Italy), late of the Royal
Flying ,Corps, believes he per-
sonally has debunked the theory
that flying is for the young only.
Shot Down
At 62 years of age, with a re-
cord of pioneer flying behind
him, he believes he has a future
in aviation. And that despite the
fact that he's had what more or-
dinary individuals apight con-
sider a hair raising career as a
pilot. He's been shot down twice
in combat, been a bush pilot and
manufacturer's test pilot.
Nowadays he occasionally tests
parachutes, but most of his time
he spends listening to the grass
grow and milking cows on his
130-acre West Oxford Township
farm. But he has had a hand in
forming much of the early his-
tory of aviation in Canada and
Europe.
- Early Casualty
He went into combat with the
old Royal Flying Corps with
three hours flying time and had
the dubious honor of being shot
down In his first dogfight by the
famous RichthofenCircus.
I r S0 f it F 44` � When shot down the first time
17 hNEQ tFASKINs• -'�uir .e� :. he had 25 hours in the air in Sop-
- rr
heard of and he rode his ma-
chine to,the ground.
Captain Williams' colorful ca-
reer in the air began in one of
the earliest type planes, in which
the pilot sat in front of the craft
in the open air with two control
sticks in his hands.
He fought 49 dogfights over.
France, Germany, and Italy, get- !
ting 13 kills to his credit (his own
_count is 16 or 17) and won- the
Military Cross from Britain, the
Valore Militaires from King Em-
manuel of Italy and another
'! award he won't tell about. He
was shot down once over France
and once by ground fire in the
Alps Mountains in Italy.
Between warsand stints at
farming,he was abush pilot in
Northern Ontario and Northern
Manitoba, a racing pilot with I'
several trophies to his credit, a
member of the old school of dare-
devil barnstormers and a teacher
of aviation.
Then for eight years during
World War II at an "official"
age of 49 to 57 years - was
chief test pilot for Fleet Air-
craft Co. He tested their Fairey
Battle bombers, Ansons, all the :-
Cornells used in Canada and
helped develop the Fleet Fort
andspoost-war Fleet Canuck:
lg ,
--"There's
Vl Llld UUJ31 `kILLVLI'. •� ' _.•".!-:+.
ences probably one of the most
� /'�
;interesting
was land''; g the
/\�
li
t�
ch
Montreal River at Matchewin.
U
J,
There he had to clear elevated
`, j
A t
high-tension hydro and telephone
lines, drop 50a feet to river level,
n �f I a
ion
fly straight at a rock cliff for
_ -
nothing romantic
several seconds, then turn sharp
about flying;' Capt. Williams
ly at a bend which cannel be
seen from the approach, skirt
claims. "It shouldn't be glamor-
some rapids and land on a near-
ized. My flying career has just
by piece of smooth water.
been a job, just a straight piece
•I suppose there are worse
of work. Flying is a natural
places," he said.
thing today and every young fel-
He was then flying a. daily trip
low should be able to do it"
from Toronto to Kirkland Lake,;
Capt. Williams still does the
South Porcupine, Sudbury and
strenuous job of testing pars-
back to Toronto. A visiting flyer
chutes for a firm in Fort Erie.
once told him he did more pilot -
He uses his own Fleet 21M re-
ing there in a day than most
connaisance craft based at Lon-
others did in a year.
don City Airport. He has dropped
Civilian Instructor
as many as 97 chutes in one
He was an instructor for the !
afternoon, two on each flight. f
London Flying Club at the old!
Philosophically he says "Fly-
Lambeth Air Field and for the:.
ing is sort of a hobby now. What I
Kitchener -Waterloo Club and
I make on flying I lose on farm- '
had his own field on his farm
ing and what I make on farming
with as many as 30 students. He
I lose on flying."
still uses the field at the farm.
While test piloting during the
His racing and barnstorming
last war he once worked on a
were done while he was an in -
problem that had taken several
strutter. One of his most prized
lives. During a certain maneouvre
race trophies is for coming third
it was presumed the controls
in the Toronto -Cleveland race
sometimes stuck. (No one was:
during the 1929 Cleveland No.'
tional Air Meet. He has wen
"silverware, club bags, some
cash and all sorts of stuff."
"Those were the days," Capt.
Williams said,
�I I