A remarkable Second World War story with deep roots in Eastern Ontario has come full circle—85 years after an airman’s death.
Squadron Leader Edwin “Ted” Coldrey of Carlington, Ontario was piloting a Lancaster bomber on June 2nd, 1944, as part of a preparation run ahead of the D-Day attacks which would occur four days later.
Coldrey was bombing a railway hub in a bid to soften up German positions, eventually being shot down flying back to England by Messerschmitt and crashing in a small French village, La Bossière-Ecole, which sits about 80 kilometres southwest of Paris.
Four of the six crew members, including Coldrey and his co-pilot Officer David A. Kelley, were killed. Two others survived with the help of villagers, though one would later be turned in by locals.
In 2005, Smiths Falls and District Collegiate Institute Teacher Blake Seward and students from the Upper Canada District School Board began researching the crash.
Seward engages in UCDSB’s Real World Learning Program and is a co-founder of Big Ideas Group Consulting with fellow SFDCI teacher Mason Black.
Later that year they travelled to France with Coldrey’s nephew, Rick Coldrey of Smiths Falls, for a ceremony marking the site.
The family received pieces of the aircraft, and a monument was later built in the forest where the bomber fell.
But the story does not end there.
Seward said one more piece of history was uncovered 20 years later.
Inscribed with “G.E. Edwin Coldrey,” it was confirmed to be the 1944 Rolex Putnam watch of the fallen pilot.
Seward organized a return trip with 16 students to retrieve the watch and take part in a new commemoration—exactly 20 years and one day after the first.
The recovered watch was brought back to Canada and presented to Rick Coldrey November 4th.
Seward said the discovery underscores the lasting impact of remembrance and the power of historical research to connect generations.
Listen to the full interview with Seward below.
Story by Grant Deme
