If you can help

I am a new member to this web site and I am not sure if this is the place to post comments, well here goes - GREAT SITE, I am researching articles on my Uncle AVM Raymond Collishaw, ( I was named after him ) and have found a lot of information and links to him, the Black Flight and some of the airmen that served along side him from your site. I am very greatful for this information. Keep up the good work.

[josef scott]

Hello neighbor!

Welcome to the forum - a great place!

I was fortunate to find a copy of "Air Command" recently. It was a great read. Your uncle had a superb sense of humour. Did you know him well?

Quite well as far as most families go, I grew up in Coquitlam a suburb of Vancouver. I was over to my uncle’s house 3 or 4 times a year. I worked for him in the summer of 66 or 67 on his mineral exploration site in the interior of British Columbia - 20 miles west of Princeton and latter in the Tulameen area. I just wish that I had paid a little more attention to what he was trying guide me in. Here’s a saying you can quote - once gone always gone, both my Dad and uncle have long since passed, I would give anything to have 1 day with either of them again, given my age I'm sure God will grant that in the near future. I am currently putting together a web page on my uncle listing his accomplishments during the 1st and 2nd world wars, a web site that has all the information in one place along with our family tree. If anybody reading this can offer any documentation, photos, military records or any thing else on my uncle or our family please email me. Thank you Mr. Scott for your replypost

[Taz]

Collie (Great name)- Welcome to the Forum. Your uncle was one of the giants of WW-I aviation. It is a real honor to have you participating here. I hope you can give us some insights into some of your uncle's wartime exploits.

Taz
Terry Phillips

My Name is Raymond Collishaw, named after my uncle AVM Raymond Collishaw I thank you for your post, MUST STATE THAT I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE TO RECEIVE MORE POSTS REGARDINDING MY UNCLE, ANY INFOMATION OR DOCUMENTS, PICTURES, and WAR RECORDS. I am currently trying to set up a web page about him, if you have any information about him, his war records, prior to his enlistment, after his discharge that will aid me please respond no matter how important you think it might be


THANKYOU FOR ALL THE SUPPORT TO DATE

[FliegerJG1]

Collie,
I was rummaging through a used book store and found some journals that I think were produced by the Canadian Air Force. They were probably from the late 1960's and there were some articles written by Raymond Collishaw. I'm sorry I didn't purchase the journals at the time but maybe this might be a clue you could follow up.

Also, have you read the book Other Days by Verschoyle Cronyn?

FliegerJG1

As anyone following this post would know I am trying to assemble history and information about my uncle. I have been trying to research his side arm, I have seen a picture of him wearing a weapon with a very long barrel holster, growing up I never saw it or was even aware of this item, my parents did not make a big deal of my uncle, perhaps to avoid my head swelling up, any way here is a notepad file copy of what I have found to date, my other quest is for a bubblegum card of my uncle in the 1930's I heard a rumour that one does exist, any help with these items will be gratefully received.

Here’s the notepad file of an email regarding his weapon:
I wish at this point to keep the author anonymous to protect his privacy


Raymond Collishaw:

If you can ask Alan Lever, I would be interested to know if his recollection of the events with which we are here concerned is the same as mine.

It was more than thirty years ago, but if my memory serves me well, this is what happened:

I was involved in protracted litigation to enforce the right that we then enjoyed to register automatic firearms under then existing - but soon to be changed - legislation. The rulers of British Columbia had been unlawfully obstructing Local Registrars of Firearms in British Columbia from performing their legal duties to process applications to register automatic firearms. Eventually I was successful, enabling a number of people to register automatic firearms and thus become "grandfathered".

Two firearms at issue were an F.N. Uzi and an HK G3 that I had acquired from Alan Lever.

One day Alan Lever called me to ask if I would like to buy your late uncle's selective-fire Mauser pistol for $750. He told me that he had been informed that Mrs. Collishaw brought it to the West Vancouver police and handed it to the Firearms Registrar, holding the barrel with two fingers as if holding a snake by the tail, with similar affection. He said that the Firearms Registrar saw that the pistol was valuable and so - to turn a quick profit - offered to buy the pistol for $50 and that Mrs. Collishaw accepted.

It was perfectly clear to anyone who read the then Criminal Code that we had a legal right to register automatic firearms, but it was not clear that the judges would uphold the law, as some were more concerned with implementing the liberal agenda than with enforcing the rule of law, while other, courageous judges were determined to uphold the rule of law even though that would end their chances of promotion to higher courts.

As I already had several firearms at risk in the process, it did not seem prudent to spend $750 on another, while it was not yet clear that the law would prevail over politics. Later I asked Alan Lever about the pistol, and he told me that it had been sold to a collector in Switzerland.

It seems to me that today it would be a "breach of trust" for a public official, like a Firearms Registrar, to profit personally at the expense of a citizen, instead of helping the citizen to obtain full market value for her property, but I do not know whether or not such was the law in 1976.

[pmirl]

If you go to this web site, there are a couple of photos.

wwiphotos : WWI AVIATION PHOTOS


Paul

[tcrean7828]

Mate,
Welcome to the flagship of the Aerodrome - where the greatest minds on the planet get together and talk about their favorite subject - WW1.

ttfn

tcrean7828

tom

P.S. Werner Voss fan here.

[Breguet]

Aces and Aircraft of World War I by Christopher Campbell devotes pages 75 - 79 to AVM Collishaw and has several pictures and two drawings (one of him and one of Black Maria his triplane.