For the first time in 62 years, a family member of flight officer John Roger Sutton was able to visit his grave at Hillside Cemetery here in Portage la Prairie, all the way from Combe, England. Sutton's nephew, James Sutton, made the journey with his wife and son.

"This is something that's been in the pipeline for quite a few years since I was in the air force," says James Sutton. "But there was another reason. The reason for being here today was my uncle trained as a jet pilot here in the 1950's. Not long after passing his course he was on a night flight and unfortunately crashed on June 29th, 1955."

He notes it's something he's wanted to do for many years, and when the opportunity arrived he contacted the padre, Captain Kevin Olive, and asked if he could come with them and have a small memorial service. Representatives from the local Legion, students from the Southport school, and one of their two exchange officers from the RAF as an assistant to the family were present.

Flying Review Magazine wrote a story on Roger Sutton's training here in Canada before his passing entitled "Roger Gets His Wings." The article said he attended the No. 2 Advanced Flying Training School at Portage la Prairie and trained on the Canadair Lockheed T-33 jet. The article went on to mention that Portage's school had "every facility for both flying and recreation," where he spent his first three weeks in intensive ground studies. His classes stretched from 8:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. Sutton enjoyed the then-newly-built Recreation Centre where he played bowling, table tennis, and other sports. The article ended with Sutton's thoughts of his future after returning home to Warwickshire, England.

Padre Captain Kevin Olive says the memorial was, "quite significant in the sense that people were buried where they died back in the 50's. Here we have someone who died in 1955 with a bright future. And it happened quite a bit back in the 50's, but the family was unable to come here and be at the funeral. If you lose a loved one, automatically you think you have to go to the funeral. And they couldn't be here. So, there was this feeling of a broken circle. For them to come full circle, to be here, and to honour their uncle is quite significant for the family, and meaningful."

He notes the family arrived here Friday and will stay for a few weeks. Olive says James Sutton is a retired RAF member himself. He adds there was a show on the BBC called Street Auction, similar to the idea of a community garage sale. The television crew goes into communities and pools articles together. They then ask the community to name someone who does a lot of volunteer work to whom they can give the money. He says it happened to be James Sutton. Since his retirement from the RAF he's done a lot of volunteer work. Olive adds Sutton's dream was to bring his family on a trip to Canada to visit his uncle's grave.

Lieutenant Colonel Marc-Antoine Fecteau is commandment of 3CFFTS School in Portage and says the memorial happened to take place when a training plane flew over at the perfect moment as though to honour the service, noting the Cemetery is located under the training route. He notes he was happy and honoured to participate in the memorial to remember the great sacrifice people make in service for their countries, regardless of their home nation. The U.K is a close ally and were training here. Fecteau adds it's very important for us to realize that, underline it, and be there for the family.

Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 65 Sergeant at Arms Henry Romance made a presentation of a poppy. "The poppy is for deceased people who were veterans -- RCMP, Merchant Navy -- for anybody in the military we lay a poppy at every funeral that we have." With teary eyes Romance says it's an emotional event. He says even though it was 1955 when he was twelve years old, it's still emotional.