by F.J. HATCH
Like so many places on the Canadian prairies, both large and small, the city of Prince Albert made a distinctive contribution to Canada's effort in the Second World War by training pilots and navigators under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. Two air training schools were established there, an elementary flying training school where pilots went through the ab initio stages of learning to fly an acroplane and an air observer school where observers, really navigators, were instructed in the theory and practice of aerial navigation. The community was deeply involved in the operation of both of these schools and their contribution has now been woven into the fabric of local history. They also have a much wider historical dimension by virtue of the fact that throughout the war, Prince Albert was represented in Parliament by William Lyon Mackenzie King. As Prime Minister and leader of the nation at war King could not have regarded the existence of the two schools as a matter of any great significance, but as the member for Prince Albert he was very much aware of their importance to him and his constituents. Thus it was that in 1942, when the Royal Canadian Air Force decided to close the air observer school, King fought a determined but unsuccessful rear-guard action to keep it open.
Like so many places on the Canadian prairies, both large and small, the city of Prince Albert made a distinctive contribution to Canada's effort in the Second World War by training pilots and navigators under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.
Owing to the urgency of putting the air training plan into action as quickly as possible, practically every airfield in Canada not required for some other purpose was earmarked as a potential training site, but still more were needed. Since Prince Albert was the main base for commercial air activities in Northern Saskatchewan and had an airport of sorts, not much better or worse than many others that were chosen, it was selected as the location for No. 6 EFTS (Elementary Flying Training School) and No. 6 AOS (Air Observer School). Although there is no evidence that King exerted any influence in this decision, he must have been pleased with the result. Indeed, it may well have been a factor that helped him to hold Prince Albert against a strong contender from the Unity Party in the election of March 1940.
An interesting aspect of the air training plan was that the elementary schools and air observers schools, usually set up side by side on the same airfield, were operated by civilian organizations-the former by flying clubs and the latter by commercial aviation companies. The general arrangement was that the Government developed the airfield and provided all the major items of equipment while the clubs and companies provided all the services such as food and aircraft maintenance, for which they received fairly generous allowances. As a result of this type of co-operation the RCAF was able to bring the air training scheme into being fairly quickly, and, as it turned out, the schools cost the taxpayer much less than if they had been placed under service management. Since non-military aviation, especially bush flying, experienced a severe setback at the beginning of the war, the transport companies were quite ready to harness their resources to the country's war effort, and a wave of excitement rippled through Canada's small world of aviation when it was announced that the clubs and companies were to play an important part in the training programme.
No. 6 EFTS opened on 22 July, 1940 under the joint sponsorship of the flying clubs of Saskatoon and Prince Albert while hangars and other buildings were still under construction. The air observer school, however, was not scheduled to receive its first class of trainees until September, and there was no immediate urgency to find a civilian company to take it over. Locally there was consider@ able support for the M. and C. Aviation Company which had served Prince Albert for almost ten years. It was formed in 1931 by Richmond Mayson and Angus CampbelL The former, a pilot in the First World War, was one of the founding members of the Saskatoon Flying Club and one of its first instructors. Campbell, an engineer by profession, was one of Mayson's pupils and in 193 0 accompanied him on a barnstorming tour. A year later this partnership blossomed as the M. and C. Aviation Company. Based first at Big River and then at Prince Albert, M. and C. ran scheduled flights to such places as Fond du Lac, isle a la Crosse, Yellowknife, and Goldfields, fought fires, and ran mercy flights. its only serious competitor was Canadian Airways, then the largest air transport company in Canada. By 1939, however, Canadian Airways had withdrawn from northern Saskatchewan, leaving the field to M. and C. Nevertheless, notwithstanding their success and an accident-free record, Mayson and Campbell, like so many small independent operators, had to struggle to survive. Their company could not compare with Prairie Airways of Moose Jaw, the largest aviation company in Saskatchewan, or the still larger Canadian Airways. In 1937 the latter had a fleet of about thirty-five aircraft, not counting those of its subsidiaries; M. and C. had only five.
Having done so much to pioneer aviation in the Prince Albert area, Mayson and Campbell naturally felt that they should get the contract to operate No. 6 AOS and in this they received strong backing from the Prince Albert Board of Trade and City Council, which wrote letters on the company's behalf to influential people in Ottawa including the Prime Minister. As a result of these representations, the company got a contract to operate a depot for the repair and overhaul of de Havilland Tiger Moths flown by No. 6 EFTS, but it appeared to be out of the running as far as the air observer school was concerned. M. and C. was not well known outside of the Prince Albert area and to make things more difficult, it was now in competition with larger companies. In May it was strongly rumoured that the contract for No. 6 AOS was to be given to Yukon Southern Air Transport owned and operated by the well-known Grant McConachie of Edmonton. This arrangement was strongly objected to by the Prince Albert business community on the grounds that McConachie was an outsider. More letters were written, and, in due time, a note from the Prime Minister's Office to the Secretary of the RCAF observed that "the McConachie Co. is extra-provincial and the public interest would be better served by having the contract in the hands of local companies ... or ... a company of [the] Province of Saskatchewan." Partly because of these solicitations and partly because of other circumstances, M. and C. saw its competitors eliminated one by one. McConachie received an attractive offer to work on the North-West Staging Route with the American Army Air Corps. Canadian Airways, which because of its activities in northern Saskatchewan was acceptable to Prince Albert, was selected to run No. 2 AOS at Edmonton while two of its subsidiaries were given schools in other parts of the country. As Prairie Airways of Moose Jaw, another possible contender, entered into an agreement to run No. 15 AOS at Regina, M. and C was the only acceptable company left and at the end of the year was invited to operate No. 6.