McManus, Walter Bartholomew Benedict (Walter)

Pilot Officer (Pilot)

No. J/5469, 504 (RAF) Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force

Killed in an aircraft accident on Wednesday 7 January 1942 (aged 27)

Buried:

Ballycranbeg (Mount St. Joseph) Roman Catholic Churchyard, Co. Down (Grave 31)

Commemorated:

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Canadian Virtual War Memorial (Internet)

Canadian Second World War Book of Remembrance (Page 98)

BIOGRAPHY

Walter Bartholomew Benedict McManus was a son of Harold Joseph (Harry) and Rose Ellen McManus of St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada and he had a brother named Joseph who operated a chain of motor service stations in London, Ontario.  Walter was a graduate of the University of Western Ontario and Osgoode Hall in Toronto and, prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, he worked as a barrister with the firm Arthur Lebel KC in London, Ontario.

Walter Bartholomew Benedict McManus was the husband of Kathleen Clare McManus (nee Hunt) of Hamilton, Ontario.  They were married in May 1941 in St. Patrick’s Church, Hamilton and in June 1941 Walter was posted overseas.  On 7 January 1942 he was flying a Supermarine Spitfire aircraft (P7823) from St. Angelo Airfield in County Fermanagh to RAF Ballyhalbert when he crashed at Derrymacash near Lurgan.  An eyewitness reported that, in his opinion, ‘the pilot was attempting a forced landing when his plane nose-dived into rising ground’.  Walter McManus’s plane – named Down – was one of a number purchased by the Belfast Telegraph Spitfire Fund.

Pilot Officer (Pilot) Walter Bartholomew Benedict McManus (No. J/5469) was 27 when he died, and he was buried in Ballycranbeg (Mount St. Joseph) Roman Catholic Churchyard, Co. Down.

Pilot Officer (Pilot) Walter Bartholomew Benedict McManus (No. J/5469) is commemorated on the Canadian Virtual War Memorial (Internet) and on Page 98 in the Canadian Second World War Book of Remembrance.