Raymond Collishaw

Air Vice-Marshal Raymond Collishaw, CB, DSO & Bar, OBE, DSC, DFC

Raymond Collishaw was born in Nanaimo, British Columbia, and became one of the greatest Canadian aviators of the 20th century — though he served not in the RCAF, but in the Royal Naval Air Service and later the Royal Air Force.

During the First World War, Collishaw was credited with 60 aerial victories, making him the highest-scoring ace of the RNAS and the second-highest-scoring Canadian ace of the war. In 1917, he led the famous Black Flight of No. 10 Naval Squadron, a mostly Canadian fighter unit whose black-marked Sopwith Triplanes became feared over the Western Front.

His courage and leadership earned him the Distinguished Service Cross, Distinguished Service Order and Bar, Distinguished Flying Cross, and several foreign decorations.

Collishaw did not disappear after 1918. He stayed in the RAF, served through the interwar years, and returned to major command during the Second World War. In North Africa, he commanded RAF forces during the early Western Desert campaign and helped shape the tactical use of air power in support of ground operations.

He retired as an Air Vice-Marshal in 1943 and died in West Vancouver in 1976.

Canada remembers Bishop and Barker. It should remember Collishaw too.