Fonds F1888 - Ford S. Strathy fonds

The fonds consists of 3 albums: album 1 consists of approximately 90 photographs of the Strathy family (Ford, his sisters Mary, Frances, Grace, and his mother, and father, Stuart) are shown camping in Northern Ontario(1911-12) vacationing at Niagara Falls (1913) and on a trip to England (Devonshire) and Rosapenna, Ireland in 1913; album 2 depicts F.S. Strathy's pilot training between 1916 and 1917, and his period of service on the Western Front in 1917. He is shown with J.N. 2 & 3 (Curtiss) machines at the Curtiss Aviation School in Long Branch, Ontario. Also shown is his training in Vendome, France (after a stop in London) in February 1917, and the photographs indicate he later visited Paris. In France, Ford flew D.H. 4 machines. He is also seen involved in various leisure activities, and on the ground taking machine gun training; the third album contains letters, clippings, photographs, and documents compiled by the Strathy family during the war, and added to after Ford's death. The letters begin in 1916 as Strathy moved across Canada (Montreal, Halifax) and crossed the ocean (arriving in London) and are addressed to his family in Toronto. The letters describe the continuation of his flight training in England and France in 1917, and his visit to Paris. He concluded his flight training in May in Cranwell, Lincolnshire. In July, Flight Sub. Lieut. F. S. Strathy went on active service in France flylng a Sopwith "Camel." In letters home, he described in detail his daily activities including his only "confirmed kill" during aerial combat on 15th of August,1917. Two days later F. S. St.rathy was shot down over German lines. The remainder of the documents include his military papers, and record the aftermath of his death including a letter from a comrade who had witnessed his last battle. Ford's letters often included diagrams which illustrated training and combat activities. Two diagrams and part of one letter of his were published in Thre Argus (19 December, 1917) and the Daily Express, (2 April, 1918).