Joseph Pierre Romeo Vachon

Joseph Pierre Romeo Vachon was born on June 29, 1898, in Sainte Marie de la Beauce, Quebec, where he was educated. During World War I he served with the Royal Navy as an engineer until his discharge. In 1920 he enlisted in the Canadian Air Force and the following year was granted leave to join the air service of Laurentide Pulp and Paper Company at their Lac a la Tortue (Grand'Mere) base in Quebec as an engineer. In January 1921, he qualified for his Air Engineer's Certificate, and began to learn to fly on company aircraft. He completed his flying training at the General Motors School of Aviation in Dayton, Ohio. On gaining his Commercial Pilot's Licence in 1923 he became one of Canada's earliest bush pilots, flying Curtiss HS-2L flying boats on fire patrol and photographic work.

He joined the Ontario Provincial Air Service (OPAS) when it was formed in the spring of 1924, flying forestry patrol. In 1928 Canadian Trans-continental Airways organized an air service to transport mail under government contract along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River. Vachon was hired as pilot because of his familiarity with that area. He went to New York to ferry a new ski-equipped Fairchild monoplane back to Murray Bay, Quebec, and on the return trip, parachuted a sack of mail onto the Quebec City airport. It was the first-time mail had been delivered in that fashion in Canada, a method the 'flying postmaster' would use almost routinely on his north shore rounds.

Vachon was assigned to fly the mail between the Quebec mainland and Anticosti Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, inaugurating the first airmail from La Malbaie to Port Menier on February 2, 1928. That same year he inaugurated the airmail to Rimouski, Quebec. During 11 consecutive winters, despite adverse weather conditions, he flew the mail from Quebec City to La Malbaie and Rimouski along the north shore of the St. Lawrence, to Anticosti Island, and to the Isles de la Madeleine, serving 31 communities. His early dream of uniting a string of isolated communities along the shores of the St. Lawrence River through airmail service became a reality.

When the German aircraft 'Bremen' completed the first non-stop, east-to-west crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in April 1928 and crashed on Greenly Island off the south-east coast of Labrador, Vachon flew from the base at Lac Ste. Agnes to the area with two representatives of the press and brought back two members of the crew and the first photos and story of this event.

That same year he designed a new aerial service for the forwarding of mail to and from Europe, including the preparation of landing strips and the recruitment of pilots. The route included Toronto and Ottawa, Ontario, and Montreal and Rimouski, Quebec, based on a schedule that coincided with the arrival and departure of ocean-going ships at Point-au-Pere, Quebec. In 1930, when Canadian Transcontinental Airways was taken over by Canadian Airways Limited, he joined the newly formed company, and became District Superintendent for Quebec and eastern Ontario.

In 1931 a Trans-Canada Air Pageant was organized to demonstrate to Canadians how aviation was progressing in Canada, and to stimulate public interest. Vachon was chosen to pilot a large twin-engine amphibian flying boat, a Saro Cloud, built by Saunders-Roe Company of England. The pageant began in Hamilton, Ontario, on July 1, stopping at every major city across Canada in a round-trip which ended in mid-September.

Vachon was awarded the Trans-Canada (McKee) Trophy for 1937 to recognize his lengthy pioneering efforts in establishing airmail service in eastern Quebec and for providing radio and weather reporting stations in the same area to improve the safety of all air transport operations.

He left Canadian Airways in 1938 to become Assistant Superintendent of the Eastern Division of Trans-Canada Airlines (TCA). During World War II he was loaned to the Department of Munitions and Supply to organize the overhaul of aircraft for the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP).

He was a Member of the Air Transport Board in Ottawa from the time it was formed in 1944 until his death in Quebec City on December 17, 1954.

The Romeo Vachon Award was established in 1968 by the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute (CASI) in memory of one of Canada’s outstanding bush pilots. It is presented “for outstanding display of initiative, ingenuity and practical skills in the solution of a particular physical problem relating to the art, science, and engineering of aeronautics, space, associated technologies or their application in Canada.”

Romeo Vachon was named as a member of the ‘Quebec Air and Space Hall of Fame’ in 2001.

Joseph Pierre Romeo Vachon was inducted as a Member of Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame in 1974 at a ceremony held in Edmonton, Alberta.