Recollections: St. Thomas

In 1941 Dad spent 24 weeks in a psychiatric hospital in Ontario.

Officers' quarters [1]

The St. Thomas Psychiatric Hospital opened on April 1, 1939. Costing almost $7,000,000, the complex was the largest and most modern institution of its kind in the Commonwealth. [7] The facility admitted an initial 32 patients, and by August it had 1100 resident patients. [2]

But lest you think Dad was a patient, let me correct you.

The limestone buildings were not even completed when they were taken over by the Department of National Defense in September 1939. By late October patients had been relocated and the hospital complex became a training base for the RCAF. Known as No. 1 Technical Training School, it was an important link in the extensive British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP).

An article entitled "Groundling School" in the July 1940 issue of Popular Aviation noted that:

The school is designed to take care of a complement of 2,500 students but, in the event of increased demands for ground men, the buildings being used for barracks can accommodate as many as 3,500 students. On the basis of a complement of 2,500 students, approximately 1,100 will be in training as engine mechanics, 1,100 as aircraft mechanics and the remainder as electrical and instrument workers, fabric workers and repair men, parachute packers and repair men and metal workers.

"Embryo aircraft engine mechanics gather around an instructor at the technical school at St. Thomas."
From Popular Aviation magazine, July 1940

The magazine article went on to say that the large hospital and connected surgical and laboratory wards would be utilized as a base hospital in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. The hospital could accommodate 200 beds, and featured a large, fully-equipped x-ray department, and dental hospital facilities. Plans included the use of a flying ambulance for transporting patients from other training stations.

Canada bought in experienced military leaders to oversee operations: Wing Commander Reginald Collis (a WWI Royal Flying Corps veteran), and Wing Commander H. G. Reid (a graduate of Kingston's Royal Military College with a career extending back to the South African War). The school's Senior Officer in Technical Training was Wing Commander A. E. Case (a flyer in 1912 with the Royal Naval Wing, who had over 20 years of service as technical director in England, Egypt and the Mediterranean). [7]

The 460-acre site of No. 1 Technical Training School. [1]

St. Thomas Administration Building, ca. 1940 [1]

Popular Aviation explained that the RCAF had started expanding in 1936, and in its 1940 article exclaimed that the air force was "conducting one of the largest mass training programs, both in flight and ground work, in the history of aviation." By training men to fly, repair, and service warplanes from Britain and the U.S., "schools like the St. Thomas unit are playing a major role in the war." [7]

"A class in airplane construction is engaged in re-assembling an old trainer which had been torn down by a previous class. These students are attaching a wing." From Popular Aviation magazine, July 1940

Like many campuses, the buildings at St. Thomas were connected by miles of hallways and tunnels, including the distant building that provided Officers' and Instructors' quarters. The Department of National Defense added an assembly and drill hall that could accommodate 2,000 men, and a large training hangar. The result, claimed Popular Aviation, was "the finest set-up of its kind in the British Empire." [7]

St. Thomas was a new facility in 1941.

Classrooms at St. Thomas, ca. 1940 [1]

As he confirmed in yet another of his little notebooks, Dad completed high school in 1938. In the summer of 1940 he applied to become a pilot, but was rejected due to colour blindness. It must have been a surprise and a great disappointment to him.

So Dad changed his plans. From December of 1940 to April 15, 1941 he attended the Dominion Provincial Vocational School on Henry Avenue in Winnipeg. Following that training, he headed to St. Thomas in 1941 for 18 weeks of RCAF Airframe Mechanic training and six weeks of Advanced Metal Work.

A mini-resume. In a 1945 notebook Dad recorded a handy chronology and list of the skills he had amassed.

Murray Fraser at No. 1 Technical Training School, St. Thomas, in 1941.
He turned 22 that year.

The RCAF had fewer than 1500 fully trained tradesmen at the start of the war, and needed to ramp up quickly. No. 1 Technical Training School "became the main source of ground crew, some fifty thousand in all, who were trained for active wartime service." The School trained 2000 students at a time, offering six-month courses for "aircraft electricians and aero-engineers, airframe and instrument mechanics and specialized training for fabric and sheet metal workers." [1]

St. Thomas, on the north shore of Lake Erie, is about 3-1/2 hours SE of Trenton, half-way between Toronto and Detroit. [Google Maps]

In the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP) of 1939, Canada agreed to provide facilities and training for airmen. At that time, the RCAF “had only 4,000 personnel, less than a dozen airports of its own and training facilities for only 400 ground crew per year. Now the RCAF was expected to train thousands. It had to recruit instructors, build air bases, acquire aircraft, and develop training schools for different specialities. By war's end, there were 151 training schools and every province had BCATP installations.” [3]

Canada was an obvious choice for The Plan: relative proximity to the European and Pacific theatres, yet safely distant from hostilities, with plenty of space, fuel and supplies, and industrial facilities for the production of trainer aircraft, parts and supplies.

By the end of the war, the BCATP had graduated 131,533 pilots, observers, flight engineers, and other aircrew for Commonwealth air forces from around the globe. Of these, 72,835 were Canadians. At its height in 1943, The Plan involved over 100,000 administrative personnel, 107 schools and 184 other supporting units at 231 locations across Canada. The federal government paid three-quarters of the total bill, an amount in excess of two and a quarter billion dollars. [4]

The complex in 1961. [1]

The expansive grounds provided plenty of space for drills and parades. [1]

But there were recreational pursuits like sports and dances, too! [1]

Recreation Hall [1]

No. 1 Technical Training School published its own monthly magazine, The Aircraftman. It helped me confirm that Dad's group photo (below) was indeed taken at St. Thomas, in 1941.

Dad (front row, fourth from the left) and his 1941 class at St. Thomas.

This photo hung in Dad's workshop for decades. When looking at it, Dad would wince at the grinning fellow in the back row wearing the wrong (summer) uniform.

The clue to this photo? A poem from The Aircraftman, entitled "The Crooked Window Bars" and its reference to "my psychopathic home."

The Aircraftman, November 1944

Dad at far right, second row. This crowd won the Commanding Officer's Trophy, a monthly sports award.

The Aircraftman, November 1, 1940

Hmm, seems there was steep competition for this coveted trophy.
The Aircraftman, April 1, 1941

Dad never commented on living conditions in the converted psychiatric hospital. Perhaps the new wards were no worse than other RCAF barracks.

Bunking in St. Thomas, 1941

Close quarters. No wonder they could handle 2000 trainees at a time.

A cast of thousands. Dad's bunk is second from the left.

Hail, hail, the gang's all here. Dad seated at right.

The Aircraftman magazine, February 1943

The Aircraftman magazine was typically 20 pages long or more and included a wide range of articles about the war effort, station news and events, humourous articles, technical columns, opinion pieces, sports and recreation news, and even poetry.

Issues of The Aircraftman included a map of the complex, much needed for the 650-acre site.
(Click on map for larger image.)

Dad would have appreciated this particular poem:

From The Aircraftman, Vol. 1, No. 8, March 1, 1941

The "Around the Circuit" page in The Aircraftman was a collection of humourous bits from other publications. The excerpt below from May 1944 would have amused Dad. It was published after he had left St. Thomas for Trenton, but it sounds like his kind of story.

One Way of Doing It!

Bombers of the Royal Canadian Air Force had returned from a heavy bombing raid on Germany and were flying around their aerodrome awaiting permission to land. Suddenly over the radio came the call: "Request permission to land -- only got three engines." Permission was immediately given to the four-engined Lancaster making the request. It made a perfect landing. Immediately there was another request: "Request permission to land -- only got three engines." Again, a Lancaster landed with one engine out of commission. Then came this request over the radio: "Request permission to land -- urgent -- only got two engines." The flare path was made brighter, and the ground staff watched the best landing of the night -- by a twin-engined Wellington whose pilot was tired of "stooging around" in the sky.

Following his training at No. 1 Technical Training School, Leading Aircraftman Murray Fraser headed east to RCAF Trenton, to apply his new skills at No. 6 Repair Depot.

In 1945 No. 1 Technical Training School closed and the facility was returned to the Ontario Department of Health. The provincial government reopened the hospital and had close to 1100 patients by 1947.

In June, 2013 a new Southwest Centre for Forensic Mental Health Care was opened, replacing the St. Thomas Regional Mental Health Care building.

Many buildings at the rear of the No. 1 Technical Training School site have been vacant since 2008, and the city of St. Thomas is grappling with what to do with them. Bloggers suggest that developers are eyeing the property. [5]