On the 7th June 2018, ‘Snettisham 45’ visited it’s furthest fallen son, travelling 8500 miles to Deseronto, Canada to conduct a personal remembrance service at the grave of Lt. Colin Coleridge MBE of the RAF. Colin played a significant part in history as one of the trainers on the ‘Canadian Flight Programme’ which brought significant numbers of new pilots in to the war and ultimately led to the creation of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). He was also one of the UK’s first ever MBEs, awarded for his going in to a crashed fighter plane that was on fire and rescuing the trapped pilot, getting badly burnt in the process.
With the assistance of Air Canada, the Canadian High Commission, the Canadian Air Force and the Canadian Air Force Association, Stuart Dark (Snettisham 45’s lead), Veronica Wilson (Heacham and Snettisham’s Rector) and Ros Pugh (the Chair of Snettisham Parish Council) took a lead role in a major remembrance service attended by over 150 people, including; two Canadian MPs, the local Mayor, the Chief of the Mohawk Indian Tribe, The Commanding Officer of the Canadian Air Force’s 8th Wing (Trenton), The Royal Canadian Royal Mounted Police (Colin Coleridge and his brother were ‘Mounties’ after leaving Snettisham), Canadian Air Force Association veterans (including WW2 aircrew), Colour Party, Band and staff from the Royal Canadian Air Force and Air Force Cadets.
Stuart said;
‘This visit was a clear statement of intent for the project in advance of our other visits…. Wherever our 45 fallen are we intend to bring ‘home’ to them to demonstrate, even after 100 years, we as a community know exactly who they are, exactly where they are and what they did for us and we are thinking of them.’
One particularly pleasing aspect of the visit was being able to locate a missing credence table with the assistance of local Canadian historians that had been donated by Colin’s family in his honour, shortly after his death, to the local community in Deseronto, where he’d died. In another ceremony, this was formally handed over by the Snettisham representatives to the Curator of the National Canadian Air Force Museum where it will now go on display as a ‘war monument’ along with information on Colin’s life and his role in the war.
The ambition of the visit caused significant media interest both in the UK and Canada, including a major report by ITV Anglia, coverage in the EDP and a live appearance by Stuart on Nick Conrad’s BBC Radio Norfolk Breakfast Show