Raymond Collishaw

Raymond Collishaw was born on 22 November 1893 in the coastal coal-mining settlement of Nanaimo, British Columbia, the son of John Edward Collishaw and Sarah Jones. At fifteen, he went to sea as a cabin boy in the Canadian Fisheries Protection Service aboard the patrol vessel CGS Alcedo, sailing into Arctic waters in search of the lost Canadian Arctic Expedition before qualifying as a mate and rising to first officer aboard the CGS Fispa by 1914. When the outbreak of the First World War brought no prompt opening in the Royal Canadian Navy, Collishaw applied directly to the Royal Naval Air Service in late 1915. Accepted as a probationary flight sub-lieutenant, he paid for his own preliminary flying lessons at the Curtiss Flying School in Toronto, crossed the Atlantic on the liner Adriatic, and completed operational instruction at RNAS Redcar and the gunnery range at Eastchurch. Under British entry conventions of the period, commissioned naval officers did not receive personal service numbers; his appointments and wartime records are registered in Admiralty Registers of Officers' Services under reference ADM 273/8/147, with his permanent Royal Air Force officer file preserved under reference AIR 76/102.

In August 1916, Collishaw joined No. 3 (Naval) Wing at Luxeuil-les-Bains in eastern France to fly twin-seat Sopwith 1½ Strutters on long-range strategic bombing sorties against industrial centers in southwest Germany. He flew escort for the wing during the raid on the Mauser rifle factory at Oberndorf on 12 October 1916, driving off defending German fighters to open his combat record. While ferrying a replacement 1½ Strutter to an operational airfield later that month, six German single-seaters jumped his aircraft at low altitude; Collishaw forced two down through the tree line in full view of French infantry positions, an engagement that prompted the French army to confer upon him the Croix de Guerre with bronze palm. Following a brief assignment to No. 3 (Naval) Squadron on the Somme where frostbite temporarily damaged his vision, he was assigned to No. 10 (Naval) Squadron in April 1917 to head "B" Flight. Composed entirely of Canadian airmen flying black-cowled Sopwith Triplanes, this formation earned widespread renown across the Western Front as the "Black Flight". Piloting his triplane, "Black Maria," Collishaw dominated the skies over Messines, Arras, and Ypres, scoring twenty-seven confirmed victories between May and July 1917, including six hostile fighters downed in a single day near Menen on 6 July 1917. These achievements brought him the Distinguished Service Cross, gazetted on 20 July 1917, and the Distinguished Service Order on 11 August 1917.

After three months of home leave in Canada, Collishaw returned to operational flying in November 1917 as a flight commander with the Seaplane Defence Squadron at Dunkirk, soon taking full command of the unit as No. 13 (Naval) Squadron on Sopwith Camels. In January 1918, he assumed command of No. 3 (Naval) Squadron. Upon the amalgamation of the naval air branch with the Royal Flying Corps to establish the Royal Air Force on 1 April 1918, his unit became No. 203 Squadron RAF, with Collishaw holding the temporary rank of major. Leading from the front throughout the German Spring Offensive and the Hundred Days Offensive, he directed offensive sweeps and low-altitude strikes against frontline German airfields. The Air Ministry awarded him the Distinguished Flying Cross on 3 August 1918, followed by a Bar to the Distinguished Service Order on 21 September 1918.

His highest awarded decoration for gallantry in action, the Bar to the Distinguished Service Order, appeared in The London Gazette, Issue 30913 (Third Supplement to Issue 30909), on 21 September 1918, page 11248, with the exact verbatim official citation:

"Lieut. (T./Major) Raymond Collishaw, D.S.O., D.S.C., D.F.C. (late R.N.A.S.). A brilliant squadron leader of exceptiona...."

Collishaw concluded the First World War with 60 confirmed aerial victories, standing as the highest-scoring ace of the Royal Naval Air Service and the second-ranking Canadian fighter pilot of the conflict.

Opting for a permanent commission in the Royal Air Force, Collishaw commanded No. 47 Squadron in South Russia from July 1919 through early 1920 during the Allied Intervention, operating Airco DH.9, DH.9A, and Sopwith Camel aircraft in support of General Anton Denikin’s White Army. His coordinated air strikes against Bolshevik gunboat flotillas on the Volga River and cavalry units defending Tsaritsyn helped secure the city and brought him appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Military Division), alongside three Imperial Russian decorations: the Order of Saint Vladimir 4th Class with Swords and Bow, the Order of Saint Anna 2nd Class with Swords, and the Order of Saint Stanislaus 2nd Class with Swords. In late 1920, he took command of No. 30 Squadron in Mesopotamia, conducting air reconnaissance in North Persia and flying tactical air support with the Kurdistan Expeditionary Force in 1923, an operation for which he received the General Service Medal with clasp and his fourth Mention in Despatches.

The interwar decades saw Collishaw graduate from the RAF Staff College, direct home fighter squadrons Nos. 41 and 23, and serve as Senior Air Force Officer aboard the aircraft carrier HMS Courageous during fleet deployments in the Mediterranean. Station commands at Bircham Newton and Upper Heyford led to his appointment to command No. 5 Wing in the Sudan during the Abyssinian Crisis and subsequent posting to RAF Heliopolis in Egypt. Promoted to air commodore in 1939, he led No. 202 Group and later No. 204 Group in the Western Desert upon the outbreak of hostilities with Italy. Despite facing substantial numerical odds, he dispersed his fighter detachments across primitive desert landing strips and executed aggressive counter-air strikes that neutralized the Regia Aeronautica, protecting British ground maneuvers throughout Operation Compass. These operational successes earned him appointment as a Companion of the Order of the Bath in March 1941. After returning to Britain to serve on the Air Staff at Fighter Command, he assumed command of No. 14 (Fighter) Group in Scotland as an acting air vice-marshal. Collishaw retired from the active list on 29 October 1943, serving out the war as a regional civil defence liaison officer before managing commercial mining ventures in British Columbia until his death in West Vancouver on 28 September 1976.