Samuel Anthony Tomlinson

Samuel Anthony "Sammy" Tomlinson was born on September 26, 1900, in Willenhall, England, and was educated at Birmingham. At the outbreak of World War I, at age 14, he was apprenticed to the Birmingham Mint as a machinist. Two years later he enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) as a Boy Airman and was posted to the RFC station at South Farnborough, where he received his initial air engineer's training and his early flight experience.

In 1917 he was ordered to front line service in France to assemble and repair fighter aircraft and to assist in test-flying evaluations. At war's end he transferred to the Royal Naval Air Station, Martlesham Heath, to work as an engineer on the latest experimental aircraft and there he flew with the foremost British test pilots.

Tomlinson was discharged in 1922 and became associated as an engine expert with boat designer Gar Wood at Grosse Isle, Michigan. He came to Canada in 1924 and joined the Ontario Provincial Air Service (OPAS) at Sudbury, Ontario, as an Air Engineer on flying boats. He then became a founding partner of Patricia Airways and Exploration Company, with H.A. 'Doc' Oaks, serving the Woman Lake and Red Lake areas, carrying supplies, passengers, and mail.

When James A. Richardson founded Western Canada Airways in 1926 at Hudson, Ontario, Tomlinson was hired as Chief Mechanic, first at Hudson and then at Sioux Lookout, Ontario, until 1929, when he assumed the same position with the company's prairie air mail division. He served at Winnipeg, Moose Jaw, Edmonton, and Fort McMurray, and three years later was transferred to Lac du Bonnet, Manitoba.

At the outbreak of World War II, Tomlinson joined the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and served during the Battle of Britain with No. 2 Canadian Fighter Squadron in England. In 1943 his expertise was requested by No. 8 Repair Depot, RCAF, Winnipeg, where he commanded the engine test bench and served on the crash investigation board. He was discharged in 1945 with the rank of Warrant Officer First Class.

During his wartime service, Canadian Pacific Airlines (CPA) had absorbed his former company and he was named Chief Mechanic of the new line at Lac du Bonnet, but left two years later to take charge of mechanics for Lamb Airways at Kenora, Ontario. In 1951 he returned to CPA as Chief Mechanic of their Lincoln Park maintenance depot, Canadian Pacific Airlines (Repairs) Ltd., at Calgary, Alberta. He resigned in 1964 to join Austin Airways at Sudbury, Ontario, and two years later retired from aviation.

During a dedicated career that spanned a half-century, Tomlinson maintained the engines and aircraft for many of Canada's early bush pilots, flying with them on many historic flights. He died on October 14, 1973, in Calgary, Alberta.

Sammy Tomlinson and a fellow air engineer completed the first Canadian major overhaul of an aircraft engine outside of a repair depot, on the ice at Wilke Lake, Ontario in 1929. He was recognized as a master of his craft, no matter what the situation. Once, he spent fourteen hours with only a saw-file, hand cutting a new timing gear to successfully repair the disabled aircraft of Punch Dickins, who had been forced down on a northern lake.

Samuel Anthony (Sammy) Tomlinson was inducted as a Member of Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame in 1974 at a ceremony held at Edmonton, Alberta.