Wall of Honour—Peter O'Brian

Group Captain Peter G. St.G. O’Brian '28, son of an Air Commodore in the RCAF, attended the Royal Air Force College, Cranwell, England, where he graduated in 1937 with the Sword of Honour for leadership.

After pre-war service with an army cooperation squadron, he joined a Spitfire fighter squadron in 1940 and was immediately thrust into the heat of battle. O’Brian fought in the Battle of Britain and was in the skies over southern England on September 15, 1940, when he and his colleagues destroyed 57 German bombers - almost one quarter of the attacking Luftwaffe that day. As Winston Churchill in his evaluation of the Battle of Britain stated, “Never in the history of human conflict have so many owed so much to so few.” O’Brian was one of the few.

Before long he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for attacks into German occupied France; the citation read, "He has shown himself to be a born leader.” He was a Wing Commander by age 26, one of the youngest in the RAF. On August 5, 1943 he was awarded a Bar to his DFC: This officer has displayed high qualities of leadership, great skill and courage, setting an example which has contributed in a large measure to the high efficiency of the squadron he commands. Wing Cmdr. O’Brian has completed large numbers of sorties and has invariably displayed great keenness. On one occasion, when he had to abandon his aircraft over the sea, he was subsequently adrift in his dinghy for eight hours before being rescued. Despite this, he led his formation on its next operation.

 

Towards the end of the war O’Brian was a member of the Joint Planning Staff located in the Cabinet War Rooms in London, now part of the Imperial War Museum.

 

After the war he stayed with the RAF until 1959 and was stationed in Aden, Germany, and the States as well as in Great Britain; he was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1954, and served for two years as aide-de-camp to Queen Elizabeth II.

 

He then returned to Canada to take a position as Vice-President of Southam Publishing.

 

Wall of Honour Members

1994 : David Harlock '89
1995 : Neil Lumsden '71
1995 : George Harris Hees '22
1996 : Charles Dalton '24
1996 : Thomas Symons '41
1998 : Chris Beck '87
1999 : Brad Crombie '88
2000 : Rob Coleman '83
2004 : Evan Solomon '87
2005 : Trumbull Warren '24
2005 : Ian Johnston '19
2005 : Peter O'Brian '28