RCAF Memorial
(Republished from the 15 November 1978 issue of The Voxair)
An event of special significance took place today with the unveiling of a unique display of RCAF Unit Badges at the National Aeronautical Collection, Rockcliffe. In a framed panel, eighty-five feet long and eight feet high, are mounted 170 official badges of units which once formed part of the Royal Canadian Air Force. The device, or symbol, which characterizes each squadron or unit is contained in a circle roughly a foot in diameter, surmounted by a crown and underlined by the unit’s motto, This exhibit has been made possible through the efforts of the RCAF Memorial Fund and the generosity of individual airmen and ex-airmen from coast to coast.
This ceremony is eventful in another sense in that it is the first of a series of joint efforts on the part of the RCAF Memorial Fund and the National Museum of Science and Technology, the Royal Air Force, and the Canadian Air Force.
Dr. David M. Baird, Director of the National Museum of Science and Technology, and Air Marshal C.R,. Dunlap, President of the RCAF Memorial Fund, who have been largely responsible for working out these co-operative arrangements, officiated at the unveiling, Amongst the invited guests were the Trustees and Directors of the respective organizations, as well as the Ministers directly concerned, the Hon, John Roberts, the Hon. Barney Danson, and the Hon. Daniel MacDonald, Also present were many of those who, in past years, commanded the units represented in the display, together with a number of Canadian Forces Commanders whose units are the present day counterparts of former RCAF units which were granted official badges by the reigning monarch.
Although the badges have special significance to those who served in, or who are connected with the units concerned, they are nevertheless works of art which will have an appeal to the public at large. Each has been individually cast in aluminum and anodized in a golden tone. The painted symbols in the one foot circle in the centre, as well as the calligraphy at the base, are the work of Yvonne Diceman, an artist well known in the nation’s capital, one of her outstanding achievements being the impressive Book of Remembrance of Newfoundland’s war dead,
A second phase of the badge display is already underway and will be completed by the end of the year. This will feature the general badge of each of the RCAF’s predecessor Air Forces, namely the Royal Flying Corps, the Royal Naval Air Service, the parent of the National Aeronautical Collection. This co-operative effort is soon to be followed by other jointly sponsored exhibits, however the full extent of this collaboration must await the construction of a modern fireproof aviation museum with proper environmental conditions for the protection of the more delicate memorabilia,
The display being opened today can be likened to the one in St. Clements Dane, London, Eng., the memorial chapel of the Royal Air Force, There, the badges are carved in the stone floors of all the aisles, This very impressive array includes some of the badges of Canadian squadrons which served overseas with the Allied Forces during World War II. On the other hand, this new exhibit in the National Aeronautical Collection at Rockcliffe embraces all the squadrons, schools, bases, and other units of the RCAF.