Don Norton - France - 1944

Canadian ballplayer, Don Norton, lost his life while serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force on this day, 70 years ago.

Donald B. “Don” Norton was born in St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada in 1920. He emerged as an outstanding natural athlete while at Milltown High School and was recognized as one of the province's premier track and field athletes. At a 1938 interscholastic track meet he tied the provincial high school record for the 220-yard dash and set new records in the standing broad jump and the 100-yard dash. During his senior year in high school, he set a triple jump record at the 1939 Maritime Interscholastic Championship.

Norton played baseball with the local St. Croixs team in 1938 and 1939. Used as a relief pitcher, pinch runner, right fielder, and a third-base man, his amazing speed made him a constant threat when on the bases. St. Croixs won nine consecutive New Brunswick titles from 1931 to 1939, they also won seven Maritime championships and the team was inducted into the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame in 1971.

The St. Croixs team of St. Stephen, New Brunswick in 1939

Norton attended Mount Allison College (now University) at Sackville, New Brunswick in 1939. In his freshman year he earned first-place finishes at the Halifax Intercollegiate Meet in the 100-yard, 220-yard dash, broad and triple jump events. At the 1940 Intercollegiate Meet, Norton duplicated firsts in the same events as he had during 1939 and added a second-place finish in javelin. At the Highland Games the same year, he ran the 100-yard dash in record time. Then in 1941 he beat Canadian sprint champion, Peter Taylor, in the 100-yard dash. In 1942, Norton equaled his best time in the 100-yard dash and broke his own record in the broad jump.

But Norton’s most heroic act Mount Allison College did not take place on the athletic field. On December 16, 1941, a fire broke out at the college’s men's residence. With little regard for his own safety, Don Norton ran from floor to floor, waking up the sleeping students and helping them to make improvised ropes from bed sheets. Eventually, Norton jumped from a third-storey window into the safety of a fireman's net. Four students lost their lives in the fire. Norton’s efforts saved many more.

Norton enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force after graduating from Mount Allison and trained as a navigator. He continued to run track for the RCAF and was recognized as the fastest runner in a Canadian military uniform.

Flying Officer Norton served with 420 Squadron and was based at RAF Tholthorpe in Yorkshire, England. On June 8, 1944, Don Norton, who had survived a plane crash earlier in his military service, was killed when his Handley Page Halifax III was shot down and exploded upon crashing in a field at Ronchois, France.

"Every person who was on the campus when Don was here,” declared a Mount Allison College publication shortly after his death in 1944, “will long remember him for his marvelous running as well as his general all round ability in everything he tried. There were few his equal, and his death is indeed a blow to all who knew him."

The Don Norton Memorial Award later established at Mount Allison. The university presents the award - in memory of all students who gave their lives in WWII - to the male student who makes the greatest overall contribution to university life in his senior year.

Don Norton is buried at Poix-de-Picardie Cemetery in Somme, France. He was inducted into the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame in 1970.

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.