George Richard Coathup

Police Cadet, Toronto Police Department | Warrant Officer I, Royal Canadian Air Force

George Richard Coathup was born on September 14th, 1920, at Watrous, Saskatchewan to parents Harvey and Eva Pearl Coathup. The family relocated to Toronto shortly thereafter, where his father, a veteran of the Great War, joined the police department. As a young man Coathup attended Central Technical School and served in the Canadian Militia with the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada. In 1939, Coathup joined the Toronto Police Department as a Police Cadet at the Traffic Division on Ordnance Street, employed as a clerk in the Accident Bureau.

On July 17th, 1941, Cadet Coathup enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force, at the No. 1 Manning Depot in Toronto. Coathup was selected for Wireless Operator (Air Gunner) training. While still training in Toronto, Coathup married his sweetheart, Betty. After more training elsewhere in Canada, Coathup embarked for the United Kingdom in December 1943 and was soon posted to No. 22 Operational Training Unit, RAF.

On Friday, June 16th, 1944, at 10:24hrs, Coathup departed on a cross-country training flight from RAF Wellesbourne Mountford in Warwickshire, England.  As a pupil Wireless Operator, Coathup was being trained by an experienced Wireless Operator. The crew also consisted of two experienced instructor Pilots, a pupil Pilot, a Bomb Aimer, a pupil Navigator, and an Air Gunner. The training flight had the dual-purpose of dropping off one of the instructor pilots for leave at Crosby in Cumberland. Early in the flight, Coathup and his instructor established radio contact with their air base but their Wellington (Mk. X) Bomber, identification number HZ715, was afterwards never heard from again.

An investigation revealed that at 12:50hrs, HZ715 crashed 100 feet below the summit of Red Pike, a 2,000-ft peak in Cumberland, killing all crew instantly – the bomber so “badly smashed it was virtually disintegrated”. The peak had been hidden by clouds, and the investigation deemed the experienced pilots at fault for over-reliance on an inexperienced navigator and continuing the flight in hazardous weather to keep on schedule with one of the instructor pilot’s leave period.

Police Cadet George Richard Coathup is buried at Chester (Blacon) Cemetery, in Cheshire West, England.

Research Sources:

  • D. Draper – Annual Report of the Chief Constable of the City of Toronto for the Year 1943, Pages 16 and 27. Toronto: The Carswell Co Ltd City Printers, 1944.
  • W.R. Chorley – Bomber Command Losses of The Second World War, Volume 7: Operational Training Units 1940-1947, Page 300.  Hinckley, UK: Midland Publishing .
  • Library and Archives Canada. Service File of No. R115256 George Richard Coathup and No. J18201 Albert Digby Cooper.
  • Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Casualty Details for No. R115256 George Richard Coathup
  • The Globe and Mail (1942, June 2nd) Page 7. “Technicians Graduated at Air Force Schools”.
  • The Toronto Daily Star (1944, March 7th) Page 8. “Unionville Flyer Helps Stoop Crippled Plane Back to Base”.
  • The Toronto Daily Star (1944, June 16th) Page 20. “In Memoriam”.