Fonds F1247 - Wop May fonds

Wilfrid Reid "Wop" May, 1896-1952, was born in Carberry, Manitoba, and moved to Edmonton with his family in 1902. He began his flying career during the First World War, where he fought in the 1918 battle in which Baron von Richthofen was shot down. On his return to Canada in 1919 he began flying commercially. In 1924 he married Violet Bode, and they had one son, Denny Reid, 1935-, and an adopted daughter, Joyce. May was the founder and first instructor at the Edmonton Aero Club, 1927-1929. The family moved to Fort McMurray in 1929 and May became a bush pilot. He made a mercy flight, carrying diphtheria serum, to Fort Vermilion during the 1929 epidemic in the isolated community. He started the Mackenzie River air mail route from Fort McMurray to Aklavik, NWT. In 1932 he assisted in the capture of Albert Johnson, the "Mad Trapper", in the Yukon.

He received the Order of the British Empire in 1935 for his outstanding flying career. In 1936 he was employed by Canadian Airways (later Canadian Pacific Airlines). During the Second World War he ran the No. 2 Air Observer School at Edmonton. After the war he resumed his position as director of northern development for CPA. In 1974 the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada designated May as a National Historic Person.

For more details see The Bush Pilots / J.A. Foster. - Toronto : McClelland and Stewart, 1990; Wop May : Bush Pilot / Iris Allan. -- Toronto : Clarke, Irwin & Company, 1966; and Wings of a Hero : Canadian Pioneer Flying Ace Wop May / Sheila Reid, 1997.