Flying Officer Paul Wood Henderson of Mountain View, Alberta was a teacher who played sports and loved to dance. He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force as a pilot in WW II. He was attached to No. 132 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit Royal Air Force (RAF). This unit was formed in November 1942 at RAF East Fortune, Scotland as part of No. 17 Group Coastal Command and used the Bristol Blenheim and Bristol Beaufighter aircraft to conduct long-range fighter and strike training. These aircraft were very deadly in attacking enemy shipping, conducting ground attacks and as night fighters.
Flying Officer Henderson was killed in a flying accident May 29, 1944 along with an RAF crewmember. Their Beaufighter aircraft had the starboard engine fail three minutes after take-off and crashed at Garden Meadow Park, Haddington. He is buried in St. Martin’s New Burial Ground, Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland and was 25 years old at the time of his death. Paul was one of three siblings from a family of eleven that served in WW2. His parents were Albert Gideon and Edith Maude Henderson of Mountain View, Alberta.
