John William Tynski, Sydney
Born at Sydney , Nova Scotia , Canada John William Tynski, 93, passed away peacefully at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital on Oct. 2, 2009.
Born in Sydney, he was the son of the late Peter and Ludwika (Gorniak) Tynski.
He was a devout member of St. Mary’s Polish parish, and a long-serving member of St. Michael’s Polish Benefit Society.
A long and varied career saw him first employed at the Steel Plant before enlisting in the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War where he served as an air gunner in Bomber Command (see below why he rarely ever flew in an airplane after the war) Before returning to Sydney at war’s end, he attended the Ontario College of Art in Toronto where he developed and refined his abundant artistic talent and then established his own business, John Tynski Signs and Designs on Charlotte Street. He later took a position at the former Adult Vocational Training Centre teaching art and sign writing until his retirement in 1980. As a testament to his distinctive brush stroke and unparalleled calligraphy, he became busier than ever in ‘retirement’. His work was seen throughout Sydney and beyond for many decades
He also volunteered his talent and time for school and hospital projects, especially to St. Mary’s Polish Church. He often conceived and created more personal works for special occasions such as weddings and anniversaries, most notably family trees done in ornate calligraphy. His hand-painted Easter eggs and most famously, his portraits of
Santa Claus done entirely in wax crayon (I have mine!), were given as cherished gifts for many years. He was also a tremendous softball pitcher whose fastball and changeup baffled many a batter.
John is survived by his loving wife of 55 years, Nellie; children, John Jr., Julia (Leo) Bennett, Greg (Elana), Stephen (Carol), Joe (Tara), Paul, Elaine (Chris) Shipley; sister, Anne Redmond; grandchildren, Jennifer (Eddie) Campbell, Michelle, John, Krysta, Kate, Eric, Julie, Jacob, Laurenne, Nicole and Ryan; great-grandchildren, Keagan and Kelsey
He was predeceased by sisters, Katherine Peltz, Frances Durkacz,
Mary Wojick (my maternal grandmother) and brothers, Stanley, Tony, Peter, Joseph and Frank
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(MUG stands for Mid Upper Gunner)
Saturday, 15th/Sunday, 16th April 1944 - N1687 Two Handley Page Halifax bombers crashed while attempting to land at Dishforth Aerodrome.
The following reports were kindly supplied by Mr Leslie Green of Weston-super-Mare and Keith E Whitfield of Thunderbridge, Huddersfield.)
Operational Record Book, RCAF Dishforth ...Flying weather for the past week has been only fair with the result training has been held back considerably. To add to this, six of our aircraft returning from a short cross country arrived here during rain and thunderstorms. Two aircraft managed to land here and two more at Linton, but the other two crashed, killing twelve of the two crews, as well as two civilians.
Halifax EB203 crashed into a haystack near Ripon at approx. 23.25 hours and burned. The crew as listed were all killed..." They were Top/Sgt. Wendell N Watkins USAAF age 21; F/O H. A. Wallace J/23362 RCAF age 32; Sgt. H.L. Muisiner R/160427 RCAF age 23 (American from Pennsylvania); W/O Class 1 J Huddleston R/106580 RCAF age 20 (American from Oregon); Sgt. K.D.Holden 2209731 RAF age 20; Sgt. L.J.Cull R/200097 RCAF age 18; Sgt. C.E. Lovett R/208139 RCAF age 18 The five RCAF crew are buried at Harrogate (Stonefall) and the RAF Flight Engineer at Tyldesley Cemetery in Lancashire.
The American pilot's body was taken back to the USA in 1948
Halifax EB205 Sent out on a routine training flight, April 15th 1944, Halifax EB 205 encountered bad weather. At one point, the crew were ordered to stand down but later ordered to fly above the storm that was due to hit the area later that day. The flight went well and they could see the storm gathering below. On returning to base at approx 2300 hrs they hit the full force of the storm. As they were preparing to land at Dishforth, both port engines had cut. The pilot radioed ahead, and he was given priority to land. Cloud cover was down to 500ft over Dishforth, on breaking cloud cover they realised they had overshot.
The pilot decided to put down at the nearby Topcliffe aerodrome and was approaching there with a 10mph tailwind. As a precaution the crew were ordered to take up crash positions. The MUG
John Tynski came down from his position and laid down on the floor with his parachute over his head . The aircraft careered off the end of the runway and into the railway cottages close to the road. Five crew and three civilians were also killed, one of those a James MacNulty was killed, as he was cycling by at the time. The occupants of the house Mr and Mrs Stone were also killed. John Tynski having been knocked unconscious, came to trapped by all the building rubble. On fire, and fearing for his life, his first thoughts were to gather the ammunition that had spilled from the containers and move it away from the fire.
At risk of being burned alive he then made up a makeshift wall from the brick rubble that lay all around to shield him from the heat. At this point he could hear help arriving from local farmers Rooke and Starr, who eventually dragged him to safety.
It was later discovered by an accident investigation team, that the Flight Engineer had inadvertantly turned the fuel off on the port engines thus contributing to the accident. [Four of] the crew are buried at the Stonefall Cemetery Harrogate [and one at Wandsworth (Streatham) Cemetery]. Harry Pearce, navigator, also survived but was later killed over Belgium Dec 18th 1944.
