RAF Stations Leeming and Linton on Ouse, once home to the Canadians, have set up a fundraising project to create a lasting national memorial to all Canadian airmen and women that fought with the allies during the Second World War. The memorial – a monolith with granite information panels in English and French, topped by a stone maple leaf – will be located at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, the UK’s year-round centre of remembrance. An RAF-led fundraising effort is now underway, and organisations in both Canada and UK have been asked if they would like to be involved in an attempt to raise the necessary funds with the aim of completing the work by Summer 2011. Mr Michael Oliver, Chairman of Oliver Valves, a Knutsford-based manufacturer that builds valves used by the world’s biggest energy firms, has generously agreed to personally underwrite the project. The Royal Canadian Air Force contributed more than 130,000 aircrew to the war effort– the fourth largest allied air force and over 10,000 lost their lives. Michael Oliver said: “It is very important that we remember the people who fought alongside Great Britain during the Second World War and a memorial to the Canadian Royal Air Force at the Arboretum is long overdue.” For more information on the monument, please see the website https://www.rcafmonument.ca/
