This pilot is honoured every year in a U.K. town. Will Canada recognize his bravery?

Royal Canadian Air Force Pilot Officer William McMullen is shown in an undated composite handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Chris Lloyd

There is a street named after him in a British town.

A plaque at the local hospital tells the story of how the 29-year-old pilot saved many lives while sacrificing his own during the Second World War.

There are even talks of building a statue of Darlington’s “Gallant Airman” to honour his life and death.

But William Stuart McMullen, a Canadian pilot officer from Ontario, is little known in his own country.

The Scarborough native hasn’t received widespread recognition for the act of bravery that claimed his life, which did not occur on a combat mission but during a training exercise as he steered his plummeting plane away from a densely populated town.

Eight decades later, his family is calling on the Canadian government to honour a man who paid the ultimate price thousands of kilometres from his home, as his wife and a six-year-old daughter waited for his return.

“He saved the town. He saved his crew. Everybody is happy but him,” said Loring Barber, the airman’s grandson.

“How can you not honour him?”

McMullen’s only daughter, Donna Barber, is suffering from liver cancer and at 86, her children worry she may not live long enough to see her father recognized.

“She would definitely like to see it. She’s probably not going to get the amount of time she’s going to need,” Loring Barber said in an interview in his home in Toronto’s east end.

McMullen was flying a heavy British bomber known as a Lancaster over Darlington when it caught fire mid-air on the evening of Jan. 13, 1945.

He steered the bomber away from the town of around 60,000 people toward an empty field, and ordered his six crew members to parachute themselves out safely.

He was the only casualty of the crash.

“Pilot gave life to save people” was the headline in a local newspaper two days later.

The story of his heroism is well-documented in Darlington and it has been passed from generation to generation. Every year, members of the town mark the anniversary of his heroism by paying their respects at a memorial on the street that bears his name, near the site of the crash.

In Canada, however, his family fear they are the only ones aware of his sacrifice.

Lola McEvoy, the member of U.K. parliament for Darlington, is trying to change that.

This week, ahead of Thursday’s 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, she sent a plea to the Canadian government asking for McMullen to be recognized.

In a letter addressed to Ralph Goodale, the Canadian high commissioner in the United Kingdom, McEvoy wrote she believes the pilot is eligible for a posthumous honour such as a Medal of Bravery or a Star of Courage.

“I believe that his heroism for many years did not receive the recognition it deserves and am respectfully proposing that he be considered for a posthumous honour for his remarkable heroism,” she wrote. “His selfless actions spared the lives of potentially thousands of civilians he never knew, and exemplify the highest standards of courage and duty.”

McEvoy said she was moved by the pilot’s story, and was planning to speak with his grandchildren.

“I think when you hear about the bravery of this man and the bravery of that generation in World War II, it feels very close to people in Darlington and it’s incredibly moving to hear what he did for our town,” she said in an interview with the British Press Association.

Veterans Affairs Canada said in a statement to The Canadian Press that McMullen was awarded several medals for his service, including the 1939-45 Star, the France and German Star, the Defence Medal and the War Medal.

His mother and widow were also awarded the Memorial Cross in May 1945, it said.

“In 1950, as many recommendations for wartime service were still pouring in, His Majesty King George VI decreed that consideration would not be given for acts performed more than five years before the nomination, thereby putting an end to Second World War nominations. This principle has generally been applied since, in considering honours policy issues, proposals for new honours, and individual nominations for honours,” the statement said.

“McMullen was not nominated during this timeframe.”

Veterans Affairs said that five-year limit is still in place “to ensure that events are judged by the standards of the time, and that they are measured along with contemporary examples, and to ensure that previous decisions are not second-guessed and history is not reinterpreted.”

Canada played a significant role as part of the Allied forces that liberated Europe during the Second World War.

About 1,159,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders served during the six-year war. Government data show 44,090 of them died, including 17,397 members of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

McEvoy said it is especially significant to recognize that contribution on Victory in Europe Day.

Nearly a week after McMullen’s crash, the Royal Canadian Air Force sent a letter to his widow informing her “with deep regret” that officer McMullen was “killed on Active Service.”

“I realize that this news has been a great shock to you, and I offer you my deepest sympathy. May the same spirit which prompted your husband to offer his life give you courage,” reads a letter provided by local historian Chris Lloyd.

Little is known about McMullen’s life before he died. His daughter was too young to remember much, her sons said.

Loring said he heard a story that his grandfather, who was a bush pilot before he joined the Air Force, once flew low over his wife’s workplace in Scarborough, a factory that produced ammunition and bombs.

“He was a bit of a hotshot, so he buzzed the plane to say, ‘Hi, honey,’” he said. It was a risky manoeuvre that nearly got him fired, said Loring.

The pilot’s other grandchild, Lucas Barber, said he also doesn’t know a lot of about his grandfather. Thinking about it feels like reading a “history book,” he said.

“Like, you know, you open the page up — oh, there he is,” he said.

He said he remembers the family receiving letters from people in Darlington, including schoolchildren. His mother would make the brothers write back.

Barber said it would be “huge” for his ailing mother to see her father further honoured.

“What’s stopping you? I don’t get it. If all these people over there (in Darlington) are doing everything (and) nothing’s happening here, I don’t get it,” he said.

“What is it, a piece of paper?” he added.

“Do it.”

With files from Sam Hall in the United Kingdom.

This story was produced in collaboration with the British Press Association.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 8, 2025.

Sharif Hassan, The Canadian Press