Monongahela resident relayed news from World War II
In one of the last letters he wrote to his family in Monongahela, Peter William Bickford described an impromptu, albeit memorable, meeting with the royal family of England.
As the former sports editor of The Daily Republican newspaper in Monongahela, Bickford was recognized as a prolific writer -- a man who wrote about many subjects and whose personal and poignant thoughts about World War II are reflected in his letters from the front.
He was the first resident of Monongahela to lose his life in the uniform of an Allied nation.
The letter, dated July 27, 1944 and sent from an undisclosed air base in England, began:
"Dear Mum, Dad and Barbara:
" ... So the King stood at the hangar entrance, saluting, while a band played God bless him, and we remained at attention and feeling considerably awed. Then an investiture was held, with some two dozen graduates of the squadron " old boys who have since returned to instructional duties " on hand to receive decorations from the King. The King gave them 'ruddy medals,' to paraphrase the Sam Small poem, and they came around to have a look at us."
The Buckingham Palace contingent was comprised of King George VI, Queen Elizabeth and Princess Elizabeth, who is the current queen of England.
Less than two months after penning that correspondence Bickford, a flying officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force who graduated from Monongahela High School in 1939, was dead. He was only 24.
He and seven other crew members were killed on Sept. 17, 1944, when the Lancaster bomber Bickford was piloting collided with another plane in mid-air over Holland. The flight was the 29th of Bickford's 30-mission commitment to the RCAF.
"He spoke to quite a few blokes so I can't say that I was exactly singled out for his attention," Bickford continued in his July 27 letter, which also reflected his keen sense of humor. "However, both he and the Queen spoke to me and I told the folks at Bristol that the Princess gave me the eye -- but the last detail is also untrue."
Bickford said King George queried him about his flying missions.
"'How many trips have you done?"' he asked me with a bit of a stammer. I must have been in a daze for I couldn't think of the number for some seconds. I finally answered, 'Seven, Sir,' and he asked me how long that had taken. I told him and then he wanted to know if this was my first operational tour, which of course it was."
Bickford was sports editor of The Daily Republican when he entered the military. He left the newspaper four months after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force after trying unsuccessfully to join the U.S. Army Air Force.
Bickford was born July 16, 1920, at Bristol, England and was only a year old when his parents, the late William C.S. Bickford and Elsie Chapman Bickford, came to the United States in 1931. He was still a British citizen when he tried to join the U.S. military. He enlisted in April 1942 in Canada and was assigned overseas in May 1943.
In a letter from London dated July 4, 1943, he wrote:
"Dear Mum, Dad, Barbara & Barrie:
"My arrival in England must have been quite a surprise to you, but you will be pleased to know that I am quartered in the most luxurious surroundings I have ever known. This 'war-torn island' is more beautiful and seemingly more peaceful than ever and I only wish you were here to enjoy it too.
"I am stationed at a resort town which I am forbidden to name, but which you and Aunt Laura know well. It really looks like something out of a picture book, and it's made me awfully proud of it. The government couldn't have picked a better location for its fresh Canuck draftees, for it gives the Canadians a fine first impression of England. I haven't met a chap yet who isn't charmed (if I may use the word) by the town, and the guy who rooms with me went so far as to say that he wouldn't mind living here the rest of his life."
In addition to his parents, Bickford was writing to his younger siblings, brother, Barrie, and sister, Barbara. Barrie left school (Monongahela High) before his senior year to also join the Royal Canadian Air Force. He was assigned to England but the war ended before he finished his training.
His family and friends in Monongahela enjoyed Bickford's letters.
"Peter was a very faithful correspondent, writing to us every week and assuring us that if we didn't receive a letter it was not because he hadn't written," said his sister, now Barbara Myers, a 1947 graduate of Monongahela High School, who lives in Bristol, England. "There was a good deal of complaining on both sides of the correspondence about the poor mail service, letters not received for weeks and then several arriving together. He was always concerned that our parents didn't worry too much about this.
"Altogether I have about 45 letters in various degrees of readability -- a few of them have been badly mauled by the censor, due probably to the giving of locations."
Myers said her brother spent his leaves exploring the countryside around the places he was stationed, "which seems initially to have been round the middle of England."
"He mentions visiting Stratford-on-Avon several times," she said.
Bickford also spent some of his free time in Bristol renewing the acquaintance of aunts, uncles and cousins he had met in 1937 when the family took a holiday in England.
His passion for serving his country in wartime was reaffirmed in a letter dated June 11, 1944. He said:
"I arrived at an operational squadron today, and by the time you read this I shall have begun to earn my bread and butter. So I have reached "ops" at the psychological moment, as it were, for the Second Front started a few days ago and we will be able to embark upon a phase of the air war which is still young.
"I am rather disappointed not to have been in for the opening gun -- but the skies over Normandy are pretty busy these days and I expect that I'll be able to do my full share of work. That's rather vague but of course I can't tell you any of the details."
In the last letter Myers has from her brother -- dated Aug. 31 -- Bickford refers to the number of leaves he "has told us about in recent letters and says we probably are thinking he is having a gay old while."
"We wouldn't be far wrong," Bickford wrote. "I can't deny that this war -- from my personal point of view -- is a pretty good one. Operations are exciting and leave is frequent ... if I could see you again, life would be complete."
"There should have been several letters after this one, but if they were written, I don't have them," Myers said.
The Bickfords did receive another piece of correspondence about Peter at their Monongahela home -- a telegram on Sept. 19, 1944, from the Royal Canadian Air Force Casualty Officer at Ottawa, Canada. The message informed them that their son was "missing in action after air operations overseas September 17."
According to a Sept. 20 story on Page One of The Daily Republican, the telegram arrived while Bickford's younger brother, Barrie, 18, "was home on his embarkation leave after receiving his RCAF wings as a gunner at Prince Edward Island September 10."
The telegram indicated that a follow-up letter about Peter's status was promised.
It wasn't until 10 months later, on July 20, 1945, however, that the Bickford family received official notification their son was "now listed as killed in active service."
The confirmation letter said Bickford lost his life Sept. 17, 1944, the day on which he was reported missing. He was buried by civilians in Strijen Protestant Cemetery in Strijen, Holland, a quiet town of 9,300 in the western Netherlands. Cemetery records identify Bickford as a flight lieutenant and show that four of his crew members also are buried there: pilot officers Douglas Dawson and Donald George Flood and flying officers Arnold Ney Johnston and Wilfred George Scanlan.
