15 years ago
Altona (ghost town)
Pickering, Ontario
Pickering, Ontario
Pickering, Ontario
Pickering, Ontario
Pickering, Ontario
Pickering, Ontario
Recent status | Demolished |
Location # | 13079 |
This house was owned by F/Sgt Floyd B. Lummis (1915–2010). It appears to have been vacant since his passing, although the electricity is still on. A couple of interesting features of this house are the large fireplace in the master bedroom & a funky light over the kitchen sink. The ceiling lamp in the exercise room looks like it was designed to depict flames, although it is starting to fall apart.
It appears that the house was vacated in a hurry, as evidenced by several televisions, couches, exercise equipment, and even several stacks of DVDs being left behind.
F/Sgt. Lummis fought in WWII as a member of the RCAF, and was awarded a rather unique medal for bravery while he was stationed at RCAF Station Trenton. F/Sgt Lummis was the 1st RCAF serving member to be presented with the prestigious George Medal, one of the highest gallantry awards in the British Commonwealth recognition system. In December 1939, as he was draining fuel from an aircraft , a lamp broke into a petrol can and ignited. Lummis carried the burning lamp from the hangar and thus “saved twelve aircraft , which, at that date, were invaluable to Canada’s air training plan [BCATP]” (London Gazett e, op. cit). By the time he got the lamp out of the hanger, he was totally engulfed in flames. On 18 June 1942, A/V/M G.E. Brookes, Air Officer Commanding No. 1 Training Command, wrote a letter congratulating F/Sgt Lummis “on being the first member of the Royal Canadian Air Force to receive this very high honour.
(Information on F/Sgt. Lummis gathered from RCAF Archives)
Comments
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Either he spelled his name wrong on what appears to be his barrack box, or everyone else has. The link I added has images of what appear to be original RCAF documents - one "s". Even his obit has one "s". :-) Nice job doing research to add the story to the place. That type of effort enriches this site for everyone.
8 years ago
Excellent history, well done. The "George Medal", that is a very special award.