Harker, Sergeant Kenneth Alvin Michael

Service highlights

  • Service Number: R70168
  • Enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force at Galt on 28 August 1940
  • Trained at Toronto and RCAF Station Trenton, initially qualifying as an air mechanic
  • Served on staff at No. 10 Service Flying Training School before going overseas in March 1942
  • In England, posted to No. 418 Squadron, then remustered to aircrew and trained as a flight engineer on Catalina flying boats
  • Coastal Command service with No. 210 Squadron RAF and No. 190 Squadron RAF, based in the Shetland Islands
  • Killed on 22 April 1943 during an operational patrol near Viðoy in the Faroe Islands
  • Buried at Thorshavn Cemetery
  • Commemorated on the World War II plaque at St. Marys Town Hall

A Life and Service Remembered

Kenneth Alvin Michael Harker was born in Parry Sound on 17 May 1918. As a young boy he came to St. Marys with his parents around 1923, growing up in the everyday rhythm of school and work that so many local families would have recognized. He attended Central School through the early grades, then went on to St. Marys Collegiate Institute from 1932 to 1937.

After graduation, Kenneth worked at Maxwell’s for two years. From there, his path shifted toward aviation when he moved to Galt and joined the Galt Aircraft Company. It is easy to picture that transition as a big one, from a familiar hometown to the focused pace of aircraft work, and then to a decision that would carry him far beyond Ontario.

He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force on 28 August 1940, trained in Toronto, and qualified as an air mechanic at RCAF Station Trenton in February 1941. Soon after, he was posted to the staff of No. 10 Service Flying Training School at Dauphin, Manitoba. For more than a year he helped keep the training system moving, the kind of steady work that rarely makes headlines but keeps aircrew and aircraft ready.

In March 1942 he went overseas. After further training in England, he was posted to No. 418 Squadron, likely in an air mechanic role. Within months he chose a harder road. He remustered to aircrew and retrained as a flight engineer, earning promotion to sergeant while still in training. He was then sent to No. 4 Operational Training Unit to prepare for Catalina flying boats, aircraft built for long hours over open water.

In February 1943 he joined No. 210 Squadron RAF, Coastal Command, based in the Shetland Islands, and shortly afterward transferred to No. 190 Squadron. Their work was persistent and demanding: patrols over cold northern seas, searching for German submarines and protecting the routes that kept the war effort supplied.

On 22 April 1943, during a patrol over Viðoy in the Faroe Islands, observers saw the Catalina dive and then pull up sharply. The stress proved too much for the aircraft and the tail broke away. The Catalina crashed, killing all nine crewmen on board. Kenneth was buried in Thorshavn Cemetery in the Faroe Islands. He was survived by his parents, Michael Harker and Emma Harker, of Millbrook. In St. Marys, his name is also remembered on the World War II plaque at the Town Hall.

Major battles and operations

  • British Commonwealth Air Training Plan support in Canada, including service at No. 10 Service Flying Training School in Dauphin, Manitoba
  • Overseas service in England, including posting to No. 418 Squadron
  • RAF Coastal Command operations from the Shetland Islands, flying Catalina patrols over the North Atlantic approaches
  • Anti-submarine patrol duties in the waters north of Scotland, including the Faroe Islands area

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