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Military museum exhibit in Nanaimo recognizes Second World War veteran’s service

Vancouver Island Military Museum expands Spitfire display

A Second World War pilot is further enshrined in history as a model of the plane he flew is now on display at the Vancouver Island Military Museum.

Duncan resident Pierce George Brewster, 99, flew most of his missions with the Royal Canadian Air Force’s 416 Squadron in the latter stages of the war. A replica of his plane was added to the Nanaimo military museum’s Spitfire exhibit on Thursday, Aug. 18.

Brewster said the model looked just like the one he flew and seeing it brings back memories of his service.

“You don’t have to bomb cities,” said Brewster. “I could see right away that when you blew up all the transport they had, shipping, submarines … trains and trucks – anything that was moving stuff, because the Germans were mobile – if you took that away from them, they all of a sudden didn’t know what to do. And that’s what we did at the end.”

Pat Murphy, a researcher at the museum, said making the model was a painstaking process.

“You have to do research to get the details for the letters on the side of the airplane,” he said. “We were fortunate enough to be able to get some information … it takes about 40-50 hours to build one model.”

The museum’s Spitfire display recognizes 70 pilots and Murphy said it was “humbling” to have Brewster there in person to see the new addition to the exhibit.

“It’s great to have George here,” said Murphy. “There’s not many Spitfire pilots left.”

Brewster’s Spitfire is named the Lois-II and he spoke of the name’s origin.

“Lois Patterson lived in St. John’s,” he said. “She’s a nurse who studied at the [Royal Victoria Hospital] in Montreal. I used to go riding with her a lot and dancing, but I was a very shy person and I never kissed her.”

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Karl Yu

About the Author: Karl Yu

After interning at Vancouver Metro free daily newspaper, I joined Black Press in 2010.
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