John Fowlie was born in Collingwood, Ontario on May 3, 1920, the only son of Melville Mackay Fowlie (born in Erin, Wellington County, Ontario) and Margaret Rose (nee Mackintosh, born in Collingwood, Ontario) Fowlie, of 144 South Forsythe Street, Sarnia. John’s mother Margaret, died the day after a difficult childbirth while delivering John. From the age 6 on, John was raised by his father Melville and his second wife Catharine Clark (nee Ferguson) Fowlie. Melville and Catharine Fowlie would have two children together of their own, Janet and Don. The family lived in Collingwood for a time, then in 1930, moved to Wheeling City, West Virginia. Around 1936, the family moved to Sarnia.
In his everyday life, John Fowlie went by the name Jack. Jack graduated in 1938 from Sarnia Collegiate, where he was an active participant in student life. He played football, hockey and badminton, and was a member of the debate team. He then attended London Normal School, London, Ontario, followed by several years at Appleby College in Oakville. Jack’s dream was to teach at a high school. He was part way toward his dream because before enlisting, he was a teacher in a one-room rural Sarnia schoolhouse at Bickford, on the Moore and Sombra town line. Teaching all grades 1 through 8, and living with the Nichol’s family while there, he earned between $700-$800 a year.
During the war, Jack Fowlie would put his dream on hold; single at the time, he enlisted with the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1941. He received training at Prince Albert, and graduated at Rivers, Manitoba. His initial training was in single engine, two-seater planes, first learning to fly, then learning to drop bombs accurately. In September 1942, Jack would visit his parents Melville and Catharine in Sarnia, before leaving for a posting in Prince Edward Island for further training. Jack went overseas in 1943 and did further training in Hudson and Wellington double-engine bombers. He was to attain the rank of Flight Lieutenant-Bomb Aimer with the RCAF #1664 Heavy Conversion Unit. His unit had numerous roles, such as planting mines, patrolling for submarines, bombing targets, and training new recruits.
On the evening of March 16, 1945, while aboard RCAF Halifax aircraft MZ481, Jack Fowlie’s plane crashed into the North Sea during a cross-country training exercise. The plane and the bodies of all seven on board were never found. Approximately one week later, parents Melville and Catharine Fowlie in Sarnia would receive a telegram from Ottawa informing them that their only son, Flight-Lieutenant John Mackintosh Fowlie, is missing after flying operations overseas. Less than two months after receiving the above telegram, the war in Europe would end. It was not until seven months after he was reported missing that Jack Fowlie’s parents would be notified that their son John (Jack) M. Fowlie was now officially listed as, Previously reported missing after air operations, now for official purposes, presumed dead, overseas. Perishing with Flight Lieutenant-Bomb Aimer John (Jack) Fowlie were F/O. J.C. Pearson; F/L. F.E. Connors; and FS.s J. Graham, J.H. Grahame, and A.H. Jones. Another member of the crew, not Canadian, was reported missing and believed killed.
John (Jack) Fowlie’s name, along with nineteen others are inscribed on a tablet on the Memorial School building at Appleby College, which was built as a memorial to the members of the Appleby community killed in World War II. Twenty-four year old Flight Lieutenant John (Jack) Fowlie has no known grave. His name is inscribed on the Runnymede War Memorial, Surrey, United Kingdom, Panel 278. Jack Fowlie’s family also had a stone laid in tribute to him at Lakeview Cemetery, Sarnia.
SOURCES: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, J, L, M, N, R, 2C, 2D, i