Walter Edwin Gilbert

Walter Edwin Gilbert was born in Cardinal, Ontario, on March 8, 1899, and was educated there. In 1917 he enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) at Toronto, Ontario, received his pilots wings and was posted to the RFC's Central Flying School in England. At the height of the German offensive in 1918, he was sent to France as a front line fighter pilot with RFC Squadrons 56 and 32, and was invalided back to Canada the following year with disabilities.

During the next seven years Gilbert flew only occasionally, updating his skills with the Canadian Air Force at Camp Borden, Ontario. He co-founded the International Air Force Club at Vancouver, British Columbia in 1923, which became the Aero Club of B.C. and an original unit of the Royal Canadian Flying Clubs Association (RCFCA). In 1927 he flew forestry patrols in Manitoba and aerial mapping assignments in northern Saskatchewan as a pilot with the newly created Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF).

Gilbert was invited to join Western Canada Airways, formed in 1926 by James A. Richardson. He was the youngest pilot in the company. His first posting was to Cranberry Portage, Manitoba, then to Vancouver for a year on charter work, fishery patrols, and freighting equipment into the mountainous areas of Alaska.

Fort McMurray, Alberta, was Gilbert's base of operations for the next five years. He flew the first freight into the Great Bear Lake radium discovery site with C.H. ‘Punch' Dickins, and subsequently flew out the radio-active concentrates that would later be used in nuclear fission experiments. He became a seasoned northern pilot with a surveyor's eye for topographical detail.

In the summer of 1930 Gilbert was named pilot of a government-sponsored aerial expedition to the high Arctic, flying Canadian Airways' Fokker G-CASK with Major L.T. Burwash as the leader of the expedition. They accomplished several tasks: recording the magnetic properties near King William Island, checking the location of the North magnetic pole, finding old campsites of the ill-fated Franklin expedition that had vanished 80 years earlier, and photographing and mapping a major stretch of the Arctic coastline.

For his survey and photographic work, as well as flying to the North Magnetic Pole, Gilbert was honoured with a Fellowship in the Royal Geographic Society and was named a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society in 1932. He was also made a member of the Explorers Club.

At Aklavik, Northwest Territories, in 1931, Gilbert met Mr. and Mrs. Charles Lindbergh during their flight to the Orient. He was able to help them get their heavily loaded Lockheed float plane off the glassy waters of the Mackenzie River by using his Fokker Super Universal to roughen the water.

That same year Canadian Airways Ltd. expanded by absorbing Western Canada Airways. In 1934 Gilbert piloted the first airmail flight from Cameron Bay on Great Bear Lake, to Coppermine on the Arctic coast, opening the first post office on the Arctic Ocean.

In March 1934, it was announced that Gilbert would receive the Trans-Canada (McKee) Trophy for 1933 in recognition of his exploratory flights in northern Canada.

Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, was his next base of operations until 1938, the year he was transferred to Vancouver as District Manager of Canadian Airways. When Canadian Pacific Airlines was formed in 1942 by the absorption of a number of smaller companies, among them Canadian Airways, Gilbert was appointed Superintendent of the Edmonton district in 1943. A year later he retired from northern aviation service, took an extended holiday and in 1951 moved to Washington State to supervise an aerial spraying company until his retirement.

During his aviation career he flew 37 aircraft types and penetrated deeper into the unknown Arctic than any Canadian airman before him. Gilbert died on October 18, 1986 at Point Roberts, Washington.

Gilbert's wife, Jeanne, was the first woman to receive her Private Pilot's Licence in British Columbia, successfully completing her tests on December 6, 1929. The Gilberts were believed to be the only husband and wife to hold pilot's licences at that time.

Walter Edwin Gilbert was inducted as a Member of Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame in 1974 at a ceremony held in Edmonton, Alberta.