BAMSEY, Dora Marion
Age at Death: 18
Rank Aircraftwoman 1st Class
Unit Royal Canadian Air Force Women’s Division
Service Number W310930
Place of Burial Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Edmonton AB
Date of Birth 1924.12.12
Place of Birth Jarrow AB
Enlistment February 23, 1943, Edmonton AB
Date of Death 1943.06.06
Daughter of Percy R. Bamsey and Jessie Alice Bamsey, of Edmonton, sister of Walter Bamsey of Edmonton and Arthur Bamsey of Halifax
Born in Jarrow, Alberta, Dora grew up with two brothers and four sisters, one of whom also served in the RCAF. She enlisted in Edmonton and completed her basic training in Rockcliffe, Ontario, then attended the Composite Training School in Toronto. Ranked 41st out of 46 in her class, she was described with decidedly faint praise: “Should make an average Clerk.”
In May of 1943, she was admitted to hospital with lesions on her face. After a few days, her condition improved and she returned to duty. A few weeks later, she travelled to Vulcan, Alberta to serve as a General Clerk at the No. 19 Service Flying Training School. She was readmitted to hospital at the end of May, where she died of streptococcal septicemia and acute bacterial endocarditis a week later. She was only 18 years old and had served for a little over three months.
