WALSH, Olive Goddard
Age at Death: 37
Rank Leading Aircraftwoman
Unit Royal Canadian Air Force Women’s Division
Service Number W301792
Place of Burial Brookside Cemetery, Winnipeg MB
Date of Birth 1905.06.26
Place of Birth Cambridge, UK
Enlistment December 31, 1941, Saskatoon SK
Date of Death 1943.01.07
Daughter of Charles and Sarah Ann Bowd, of Winnipeg
Olive grew up moving with her family, no fewer than 10 siblings, from Ontario to all over western Canada. At the time of her enlistment, her father was deceased; her mother added that his whereabouts had been unknown for years. In 1921, she married American pro football player Robert Walsh, who died in 1924. She was taken on as an accounting clerk with the RCAF, hoping to be transferred to a fighting unit overseas.
Olive had survived a bout with breast cancer in 1938. Starting in May 1942 she was in and out of hospital for a variety of ailments; in November she diagnosed with metastatic cancer, and discharged from duty the following day. She died less than two months later.
In March of 1943, Olive’s mother wrote a heartfelt note asking for a gold medal that she said Olive would have won for being top in her class, were it not for being hospitalized. The RCAF’s response is not known.
