RAF Malta – Claudia Fox Reppen

Graduation photo James “Norman” Lillico from Bombing and Gunnery School, November 10, 1941.
Photo: Courtesy of Lillico family.

PREVIOUS POSTS IN THIS SERIES:

On this Canada Day, in a new (and long overdue) update, my brother and co-author, Lance Fox, and I are pleased to share that we have been able to uncover additional information related to Following the Echoes.

The time around Remembrance Day seems to be the season that keeps on giving, and on November 11 of last year, it was the great-grandson of someone featured in the book and an earlier blog post who followed an echo and found us.

In my October 2023 post “The Others,” which featured several individuals in the book whose relatives we hoped to connect with, I mentioned James “Norman” Lillico, a dear friend of Wendell “Del” Drew from their time together in the RCAF.

Norm hailed from Britannia Village in Ottawa, where he spent his childhood days during the Great Depression on the hockey rink in the village. Aged just eighteen in 1940, he enlisted, as did many of the other boys (read this wonderful article, “The Boys of Britannia,” which Norm contributed to in 2009).

In 1941, Norm and Del met at wireless school in Montreal, where they became great friends; they were later reunited at bombing and gunnery school in Jarvis, Ontario. Overseas, they found each other again in Scotland (Del was in Prestwick; Norm was in nearby Ayr), and the two enjoyed travelling to London whenever they had leave together.

Norm Lillico in his “teddy-bear” flying suit liner.
Photo: Courtesy of Lillico family.

Eventually, Del and Norm would be transferred to the Middle East and posted to Malta and Egypt respectively to begin their tours. Flying from Egypt, Norm visited Del in Malta but was later posted to India. They continued to send letters to each other until one day, when Norm’s letters to Del were returned, stamped “MISSING ON OPERATIONS.”

Norm was devastated. Theirs was a deep friendship, and Norm always cherished the memory of Del. In 1990, he was prompted to write a letter containing memories and anecdotes about Del. This letter, which ultimately ended up in the possession of Shirley McKellar of Radisson, Saskatchewan (Del’s home village), amazingly resurfaced and appeared in Following the Echoes over thirty years later.

Norm passed away on July 29—the same date as his cherished friend—but sixty-seven years later, in 2011, at the age of ninety.

Norm Lillico with a cherished parcel from home, in front of Queen’s Garden, London, May, 1942.
Photo: Courtesy of Lillico family.

And so, on Remembrance Day of 2025, I received a message from a young man in Ottawa named Hayden Kovacs:

Hi Claudia,

I know you probably don’t remember, but I came across a post you posted a few years ago about Norman Lillico. Norman was my great-grandfather. I spend every Remembrance Day learning as much as I can about the time he served and came across your post.

I remembered, of course, and immediately messaged Lance, who was at a Remembrance Day ceremony with his family in Regina, Saskatchewan. Hayden put us in contact with Norman’s daughters, Anne and Julie, who were also thrilled to connect, and over the next few days we exchanged messages, photos, and information. Anne and Julie were also able to provide us with new details featured in this post.

Anne recalls Sunday dinners at home “when we were all held captive around the table,” and their dad, especially after a glass of wine, would “tell stories about the war for literally hours,” remembering minute details of his days in the service.

Norm Lillico’s friends, Del Drew and Red Stephenson, in Trafalgar Square, London, 1942.
Photo: Courtesy of Lillico family.

Readers of Following the Echoes may recall that we suspected our Grandma Gladys was the girl with whom Norm and Del went skating, and whom they had dubbed “Queenie,” but we had no way of knowing for sure. Also, we had been unable to pinpoint exactly when Del and Gladys met for the first time.

But after reading our book, Julie went through her father’s unpublished memoir and reported back:

After reading our dad’s letter in the book, I went back to his memoir to try and pin down when your grandmother and Del may have met. It was quite a surprise to find Dad’s entry: He refers to he, Del, and another couple of lads spending time skating. Dad then writes: “and this is where I met Gladys Hope, or Queenie as Del dubbed her!”

“I insisted that all the girls for miles around would come flocking in when they knew he [Del] was here, but I can remember how they brightened up the place.”
-Norm Lillico

Julie was able to establish that Del and Gladys met in April of 1942, as well as this interesting tidbit:

Very surprisingly, it would appear my dad briefly courted your grandmother before Del. He talks about going to their home for tea after skating or catching a show and that your great-grandfather would always make an entrance and want to quiz him on armaments, which Dad recalled your great-grandfather knew more about than him!

Del and I, along with Walter Affleck and several others would jump on a street car or bus on a nice evening and spend a few hours at Belmont Park. We were still at an age when we enjoyed rides on the scenic railway, loop-o-plane and things of that nature. Del had a cast iron stomach and could go from one ride to another with no break. It was the same when he was flying. No matter how rough, he never became air sick. The more arobatics the better he liked it.
-Norm Lillico

Norm also mentions that our great-grandfather, Neville Hope, was in the Home Guard and a fire warden (the latter of which we did not know). Julie adds:

In any case, it seems this is where they all met, and Gladys was such a lovely girl, well as my dad wrote, tongue firmly in cheek: “Del made sure that I knew he would move in on my territory as soon as I left London.” I think it’s safe to say that the love story begins there.

Shirley McKellar
Photo: Courtesy of Shirley McKellar

Indeed, that was the beginning of Del and Gladys’s incredible love story. And now that we know more about its origins, we have also learned a valuable lesson, thanks to Shirley McKellar, the lovely lady who contributed a wealth of information to Following the Echoes, and without whom we never would have learned about anything in this post: Hold on to those old letters—you just never know how important they will be to someone someday!

Following the Echoes is available worldwide through major online booksellers. Your favourite bookshop can also order it in for you. Just give them the title or ISBN number: 9781039188396 (paperback) or 9781039188402 (hardcover). For news, updates, and excerpts from the book, follow us on Facebook and Instagram. For other enquiries, contact me at claudiareppen@gmail.com.

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In the latest installment of Following the Echoes, it’s been quite a week of developments related to some of the individuals featured in my earlier post “The Others.” There will be more to follow, but this post is dedicated to the crew members of Wellington HX726, of which Wendell “Del” Drew was the sole survivor when their plane crashed at Luqa, Malta, on February 13, 1943.

Recently, my brother and co-author, Lance Fox, and I were able to connect with Cate Wagstaffe. Just like Del Drew, Cate’s British great-uncle, Warrant Officer John Michael Wagstaffe, served with 458 RAAF Squadron on Malta. And, like Del, he was involved in a crash there. Unlike Del, however, Wagstaffe did not survive: he and four of his crewmates were killed on April 19, 1944.

Cate, who is a Canadian flight correspondent for the 458 RAAF Squadron Association, came across our book, Following the Echoes, while researching the HX726 crew for the squadron’s newsletter, including Harold Ernest Stanley (p. 28), Lawrence Harry Gleason and Maurice McAllister Kempton (p. 14), and Peter Edwyn Brown (p. 26). She has been instrumental in helping us research these latest details and photos.

This past October, Cate and her family were able to make a very special trip to Malta (featured here on CBC: Del’s crewmates appear starting at 2:08; at 4:24 their gravesite is shown) to visit her great-uncle’s grave for the first time and, as Canadian flight correspondents for 458 Squadron, to represent all the Canadian members who died in Malta. There they visited the Aviation Museum and were welcomed by its owner, Ray Polidano, who showed them a chapel that houses a book listing all the names of lost 458 Squadron members.

In Following the Echoes, we shared:

Four days after the crash, on February 17, Del’s crewmates were all buried with full military honours at the Malta Capuccini Naval Cemetery just outside the village of Kalkara, an event that we cannot be certain, but expect, he attended (p. 60).

Thanks to Cate’s trip to Malta and this haunting photo we received from Rhys Nye, the nephew of Del’s crewmate Harry Gleason (who perished in the crash), we now have proof that Del indeed attended the funeral:

Funeral for the crew of HX726, 3:00 pm, February 17, 1943, Bighi Cemetery, Malta. Wendell Drew is at front right. Leonard Laforet is on the opposite side, second from the front on the left. Photo: Courtesy of Rhys Nye.

Close-up view of sole survivor Wendell Drew, staring into what must have felt like the abyss, as he buries all his crewmates. Wendell would not escape the abyss either, perishing over the North Sea in July 1944.

In a letter sent to Sgt. Harold Stanley’s family (now in the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum in Brandon, Manitoba), it says that the funeral was held on February 17, 1943, at 3:00 pm—three and a half days after the crash—at Bighi Cemetery in Malta, but it appears that those buried there were later relocated to the current Capuccini Cemetery, possibly in the 1960s.

Reverse side of funeral photo. Photo: Courtesy of Rhys Nye.

In addition to the above funeral photo, we received this sharper version of a group photo, believed to be taken at No. 7 OTU in Limavady, Northern Ireland, on either July 18 or 23, 1942. We can now confirm the identities of all the men:

Group photo taken at No. 7 OTU in Limavady, Northern Ireland, on either July 18 or 23, 1942. Photo: Courtesy of Rhys Nye.

Left to right:

Harry Gleason had also labelled the back of the original photo, now in the Malta Aviation Museum’s collection. Photo: Courtesy of Rhys Nye.

(1) Sgt. Leonard John “Bus” Laforet – 632 Hall Ave., Windsor, Ontario: Died in 1992 (Source: daughter Laura Labute)
(2) Sgt. “Tommy” Tomlinson (first name unknown) – England
Not numbered: P/O Lawrence Harry Gleason – Canora, Saskatchewan: Killed in Wellington HX726 crash at Luqa, Malta, February 13, 1943
(3) P/O Maurice “Kemp” McAllister Kempton – Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan: Killed in Wellington HX726 crash at Luqa, Malta, February 13, 1943
(4) Sgt. Wendell “Del” Drew – Radisson, Saskatchewan: Lost on Lancaster JB707 over North Sea on July 29, 1944
(5) Sgt. Donald “Corny” Munroe – 835 Dawson Rd., Windsor, Ontario: Died in 2013 (Source: obituary)

The Wellington plane in the photo of the crew is HX428. An online search seems to indicate that it failed to return from a training exercise on October 28, 1942, with another entire crew being lost.

Thanks to Cate and Leonard Laforet’s daughter, Laura Labute, we also received this photo we had never seen before, of Leonard and Del standing together, probably sometime between June 1942 and February 1943:

Leonard Laforet and Wendell Drew. Photo: Courtesy of Laura Labute (Laforet’s daughter).

We would also like to share this photo that appeared in Following the Echoes, for which we are now able to provide further identifications. It is from No. 7 (Coastal) OTU in Limavady, Northern Ireland, on June 9, 1942, or shortly thereafter:

No. 7 (Coastal) OTU in Limavady, Northern Ireland. Photo: Courtesy of Gary Noacks.

Wendell Drew is in the back row, sixth from left. Harry Gleason is in the centre row, second from left. Leonard Laforet is in the centre row, first from left. “Tommy” Tomlinson is in the centre row, third from left. Donald Munroe is in the centre row, last on the right.

Other names remain uncertain, but were labelled as follows:

Back row, left to right: McDougall, Yorke, Courahcane [sic?], Lepalme [sic?], McArthur, Wendell Drew, Drew, Belanger, Duffy, Dunbar, Jamisson [sic?], Dallaire, Louden.

Centre row, left to right: [Leonard] Laforet, [Harry] Gleason, Tomilson [Tomlinson], Grenwold, Kirwin, Harris, Britten, Smith, Adamson, Geddes, [Donald] Munroe.

Front row, left to right: Campbell, Abraham, Lyon, Radford, McLeod, Cook, Mahoney, Brown, Bell, Reynolds.

Note: There are two Drews standing next to each other. The man beside Wendell Drew is also named Drew, but we don’t know his first name. A relative of Wendell Drew recalls an airman of the same last name attending the funerals of Mr. and Mrs. Drew, who passed away within months of each other in 1966. This airman was from Edmonton and a friend of Wendell’s from the war. Maybe someone out there can help us with this mystery?

Gravesite commemoration of the Wellington HX726 crew at Capuccini Cemetery, Malta, October 2025. Photo: Courtesy of Cate Wagstaffe.

Following the Echoes is available worldwide through major online booksellers. Your favourite bookshop can also order it in for you. Just give them the title or ISBN number: 9781039188396 (paperback) or 9781039188402 (hardcover). For news, updates, and excerpts from the book, follow us on Facebook and Instagram. For other enquiries, contact me at claudiareppen@gmail.com.

Tag: RAF Malta

Following the Echoes: Hold On to Those Old Letters

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