Henry Ramsay Carruthers was born January 1, 1924, at Armadale, Linlithgowshire, (present day West Lothian) Scotland, the younger son of John (First World War veteran) and Marion (nee Ramsay) Carruthers, and the brother of Sergeant James ‘Jim’ (Royal Canadian Corps Signals), and Jean Sneddon Carruthers. In June 1929, Henry and his family immigrated to Canada and first lived in Essex, Ontario where Henry’s father worked as a green keeper at the Essex County Golf and Country Club. Henry and his siblings began attending school in Essex, before Henry and his family moved west and settled at Trail, British Columbia. As a young man, Henry played softball and hockey and enjoyed photography and skating in his spare time. Henry attended Trail Central School and finished his junior matriculation at Trail High School in 1940. After furthering his studies in trigonometry, mechanical drawing and mathematics, Henry began a carpenter’s apprenticeship in September 1940 with Consolidated Mining and Smelting Co. of Canada, Ltd. at Trail until enlisting at Calgary, Alberta March 18, 1942. Overseas in March 1943, Henry served with the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War as a Warrant Officer Class II (Air Bomber) attached to No. 70 (RAF) Squadron (Usquam). Part of RAF Bomber Command, the No. 70 Squadron operated Vickers Wellington aircraft from Djedeida, 20 miles west of Tunis, targeting industrial sites in northern Italy before the squadron moved to Cerignola on the Foggia Plain of Italy in December 1943 during the Italian Campaign. On July 7, 1944, Henry Ramsay Carruthers died when his Wellington aircraft crashed 40 miles northeast of Zagreb, Yugoslavia, on the north bank of the Danube River, during bombing operations over Feuersbrunn, near Vienna, Austria. He was 20 years old. Henry is commemorated at the Belgrade War Cemetery, Serbia, on the Trail Cenotaph, British Columbia, on Page 269 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance, Ottawa, Ontario, and on the Scotland National War Memorial, Scotland. Citation(s): 1939-1945 Star, Italy Star, Defence Medal, War Medal, Canadian Volunteer Service Medal with Clasp.

"Pro amicis mortui amicis vivimus. We live in the hearts of friends for whom we died."