Eric Miller's Family Tree

William "Billy" Horation Donald

Person Chart

Parents

Father Date of Birth Mother Date of Birth
George Donald Margaret Florence "Auntie May" Barton 1892

Person Events

Event Type Date Place Description
Birth 1918 England
Death Jan 1943 North Atlantic, Canada

Notes
Born in 1920, William Donald was a student at Trinity University in Dublin, Ireland studying to be a barrister (lawyer) in 1939 at the outbreak of the second world war (WWII). He traveled from Ireland to England to join the Royal Air Force (R.A.F.) sinceIreland was neutral at that point in WWII.
In 1940 William was one of a group of fifty pilot officers sent to Glendale, California, USA to do his R.A.F. flying training. the trainees had to wear gray flannel suits as the United States had not yet entered the war and foreign military uniformswere not allowed. William received his pilot's wing in a ceremony in Montreal, Canada.
William Donald was flying a spitfire on a routine reconnaissance flight when his airplane went down over the Orkney Islands between Norway and Scotland. his body was never recovered. Yhe last radio report of William Donald stated his de-icing apparatus was not working and his plane was icing up.