Alfred G. E. Pigott was born July 9, 1911 to Arthur and Louisa Pigott, in a small mining community near Tweed in Hastings County. Soon after his family moved and settled in Brantford, where he undertook his schooling, proving to be also a gift athlete. After completing school, Pigott worked in a variety of jobs, and married Frances Carleton with whom they had a daughter named Glory, born in 1939.
In May, 1941, Pigott enlisted for service with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) at the age of 29. At the time, Pigott would have undertaken his training at either Trenton of St. Thomas. Selected for the role of ground crew, he trained in servicing, maintaining and repairing aircraft.
In June 1942, Pigott was transported to England and assigned to the newly formed 425 Squadron RCAF, known also as the Alouette Squadron, based in Yorkshire. Equipped with twin-engine bombers, the squadron conducted their first bombing raid in early October 1942 over Aachen, Germany.
By the end of 1942, as Commonwealth Forces were pushing the enemy back from northeast Africa through Egypt and Libya, the Americans were pushing from the Northwest in Algeria and Tunisia, in an effort known as Operation Torch. The Squadron was flown to Telerghma, Algeria and later to Kairouan, Tunisia, where they supported American Forces who had successfully secured airfields creating forward bases to help support ground troops. From these bases, they were then able to support Allied landings in both Sicily and mainland Italy.
Returning to RAF Tholthorpe in Yorkshire, in October 1943, the squadron now equipped with heavier machines, conducted bombing raids over France, including support for the Normandy invasion, and Germany, including the industrial complexes of Ruhr and over Berlin.
After VE Day, Pigott’s unit was returned to the RCAF base in Debert, Nova Scotia, at which time he was decommissioned. After returning home, Pigott and his family moved to Orono in 1946, taking up employment at both the Training School and Goodyear in Bowmanville, before moving on to bakery work in Orono and Port Perry.
An avid hunter and fisherman, Alfred Pigott passed in 2002 at the age of 90. The banner in his honour is sponsored by the Adams family of Orono.
Courtesy of the Orono Weekly Times with special credit to Carol-Ann Oster
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