| Born |
January 8, 1895
|
| Died |
March 26, 1918, Age 23
|
| Force |
Air Force
|
| Home Address |
16 Selby Street
[Map]
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Allan Denovan grew up in Toronto and attended both UTS, which he entered in 1910, and Upper Canada College. He tried to enlist early in the war, but was turned down due to physical disability. Determined to go overseas, he underwent an operation and successfully joined the Royal Flying Corps, even though, as his father later told the Toronto Star, “he never saw an aeroplane till he went overseas.” He reached France in April 1917, where he served as photographic officer for an Artillery Observation Squadron. In June, he was severely wounded and given seven months’ leave to recuperate. When he returned to the front, he was given a fast scout-plane and engaged in several notable dog-fights. On one occasion, Denovan, set upon by four German planes, shot down one and disabled another, causing the other pair to retreat; on another, he lost the use of his hand but still managed to land safely. He went missing on 26 March 1918, during a mission near Bapaume on the Somme Front, and is commemorated on the Arras Flying Services Memorial in France, as well the World War One memorial tablet of Saint Paul’s Anglican Church on Bloor Street East, which also bears the names of UTS alumni Edward Booth, Paul Pettit, and Philip Williams. “And us they trusted. We the task inherit/The unfinished task for which their lives were spent/But leaving us a portion of their spirit/They gave their witness and they died content.”
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