Liston Anderson - Great Britain - 1943

Liston Anderson was an outstanding hockey and baseball player from Alberta, Canada, who lost his life in service with the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II.

Liston Anderson, the son of William and Jean Anderson, was born in Strathaven, Lanarkshire in Scotland on May 4, 1911, and moved to Canada with his parents in July 1921.

He lived in Drumheller, Alberta and excelled as a local athlete. Anderson played twelve seasons with the Drumheller Miners in the Alberta Senior Hockey League. He was an outstanding defensiveman and a teammate of Tommy Anderson (no relation, but who, like Liston, was born in Scotland. Tommy Anderson went on to play professional hockey with the New York Americans of the National Hockey League). Liston Anderson received numerous offers to turn professional but chose instead to retain his job with Canadian Utilities.

Liston was also a prominent member of baseball, softball and soccer teams, pitching for the Drumheller Juniors and Drumheller Merchants. At nearby Rosedale’s annual Labor Day sports event on September 1, 1930, the Rosedale Seniors and Drumheller Juniors battled eight innings to a 6-6 tie in the baseball tournament final. Lorne Nichols of Rosedale and Liston Anderson of Drumheller had staged a hurling duel that eventually had to be called on account of darkness.

On May 29, 1935, Anderson played soccer for a select Alberta eleven, before a crowd of 3,500 in Calgary, against the touring stars of the Scottish Football Association. Losing to the Scots, 9-1, Anderson - the only Drumheller representative - scored the lone goal for the Canadians against his birth nation.

Anderson was married to the former Mary Malton of Empress, Alberta, and prior to his enlistment he was employed by Canadian Utilities. He joined the RCAF in May 1941, graduating as an observer and receiving his commission in May 1942 at Rivers, Manitoba. Flying Officer Anderson was assigned to submarine patrol work on the Canadian Atlantic Coast. He also served at Montreal with Ferry Command as observer-navigator in a Consolidated B-24 Liberator.

In February 1943, with Mary less than two months pregnant, Liston Anderson went overseas to Britain as a navigator/bomber. Aged 32, he was killed on active service aboard a bomber nicknamed "Trader Horn" on July 30, 1943.

Flying Officer Liston Anderson is buried at Llantwit Major Cemetery in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. His son, Liston L. G. Anderson, was born on September 2, 1943, in Vancouver, British Columbia.