Remembering Air Force photographer, Corporal James Hutchinson

By Keaton Schmidt (Age 12)

My great grandpa, James Hutchinson was born February 9, 1918 and lived in Richlea, Sask where he worked with his dad at the livery stable. He also worked for farmers and delivered oil in barrels to farmers with his dad until March 31, 1941 when he volunteered for the Royal Canadian Air Force as a photographer and eventually became corporal. My grandpa gave me a bunch of these pictures.

While overseas, one of his jobs as a photographer was to set up cameras in the planes bomb bay, which is where the bomb dropped out of the plane from. He also put cameras in fighter planes air scoops and every time the plane would shoot, the camera would take a picture to count the hits they got. Once while he was putting a camera in a plane in France, a German plane flew over and was shooting at them. He could see bullets bouncing off the runway around him. Sometimes he would go for rides in planes and take his own pictures from the sky. During the war, he took a lot of pictures of enemy planes, some of them were crashed and some look like they were captured, lots of them had been shot down or ran out of fuel and had to be ditched. Someone he met and took a picture of who was very important in the war was Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill was the prime minister of England during World War 2. He helped the allies organize D-Day, which is one of the most important events that helped Canada and the allies win World War 2.

During the war, he met his future wife June in England and they got married on April 28, 1945. After they got married, he sent her on a boat to Canada, to live with his family until he got home.

Among his photos are a lot of pictures of towns after they had been bombed, they looked like an old junkyard. There were people cleaning up rubble and piling bricks, there were pictures of concentration camps, planes, trucks and him and his friends hanging out and playing cards. One of the reasons he took so many pictures is because there were contests for the best photos.

My great grandpa James Hutchinson did a lot of interesting things during his time in the air force and was honorably released on October 6, 1945 and he returned to Richlea and became a carpenter. He passed away August 1, 1999 in Victoria, B.C.

I am thankful for all the men and women who served Canada during all the wars.

Photo: Keaton Schmidt proudly holds a photo of his great grandpa, James Hutchinson.