Stanley Wallace Rosevear was born in Walkerton, Ontario, in 1896, but grew up in Port Arthur, where his father was a teacher. The family lived on Prospect Avenue and Stanley attended Port Arthur Collegiate Institute. From there he enrolled as a student in Applied Science at the University of Toronto where, in 1916, he enrolled in the University Overseas Training Company The following year he transferred to the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). After pilot training in Britain, and commissioned as a Flight Sub-Lieutenant, he went to France in July 1917, where he flew Sopwith Triplanes out of Bailleul as a member of 1 (Naval) Squadron. From the outset, Rosevear was recognized as a skillful, aggressive pilot, being mentioned in dispatches several times and awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in October 1917 for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. As the citation in the London Gazette noted “He has destroyed several hostile machines, and has also attacked and scattered parties of enemy infantry from low altitudes, on one occasion from a height of only 100 feet.” His squadron gained a reputation for its ground attack work, flying the Sopwith Camel, but Rosevear was also skilled in other aspects of aerial combat. In nine months at the front, he shot down 23 enemy aircraft. As a result of such activities he was awarded a bar to his DSC in March 1918. He was promoted to the rank of Captain when the Royal Flying Corps and the RNAS amalgamated to form the Royal Air Force on April 1, 1918, but later that month Stanley Wallace Rosevear lost his life when the plane he was flying crashed near Arras in France.
World War One Thunder Bay Centennial Project 