Duncan McGregor was born on 6th September 1924 to Duncan and Gladys McGregor (nee Low) of Red Deer, Alberta, Canada but the family moved to Calgary when he was a young age.
He had a brother and two sisters (his brother Robert served in the RCAMC). Duncan was working as a clerk for the Southern Alberta Dairy Pool when he enlisted into the RCAF
on 8th September 1942 in Calgary. He initially undertook pilot training but switched to become a bomb aimer around September 1943. He was awarded his Air Bomber's badge and also received a commission to the rank of P/O on 14th January 1944. He was then posted overseas in late April 1944 and arrived in the UK on 7th May 1944. On arrival in the UK he trained at 2 (O)AFU and 22 OTU, and was posted to 1659 HCU on 1st December 1944.
F/O Duncan McGregor was twenty years old and was buried at Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire on 20th January 1945.
I have also been fortunate to have been contacted by a number of members of the McGregor family and during a visit to the UK in 2009 they were able to visit
the crash site and the memorial. I would like to thank the family for contacting me and for kindly supplying the photograph of F/O McGregor to this account.
This is the offical telegram that Duncan McGregor's mother received informing her of her son's death in England. I have kindly been sent this copy
by his relations and show it here to show an example of how mother's received initial notification of a loss in their family. There was no room on the
telegram for any other information and, as it states, a letter always followed with some explanation of why their son had met his death.
The letter families received is shown above.
A further letter usually followed with more details such as this one.
