Flight Sergeant Joseph John Goldspink was born in Alberta on September 21, 1920 to John and Lillian Hayes. The family relocated to Windsor, ON when Goldspink was a young boy. His childhood was unsettled and Goldspink was often found to be running away from home or committing petty crimes, actions which by the time he was only 12 years old, landed him at the Bowmanville Training School for Boys. It is thought that it was part of this training program that resulted in him working and living with the Ransberry family. While there he was enrolled in the Orono school, where he earned awards for his writing and drawing. He returned briefly to Windsor in 1936 and completed a year at the Windsor Walkerton Vocational School, returning to Orono in 1938 where he lived and worked with the Cornish family for the next three years. In 1941, when he enlisted, he was working with the Davey family in Leskard. Goldspink evidently formed strong personal bonds with the families with whom he worked and lived. Both Mrs. Davey and Mrs. Cornish acted as character references on his attestation.
Goldspink enlisted with the Royal Canadian Air Force on September 3, 1941 in Toronto. He reported to the No. 1 Manning Depot located on the CNE grounds on January 5, 1942 where he underwent basic training and assigned to air gunnery duties. He was briefly sent to RCAF Trenton and then to No. 6 Service Flying Training School. It was here that Goldspink met Irene Emma Osborne of the RCAF Women’s Division, whom he married on July 11, 1942. A week later he was transferred to No. 1 Bombing and Gunnery School in Jarvis, ON, finally graduating as an air gunner on October 17, 1942. The next day he was assigned to RCAF Station Mountain View, located near Picton, undertaking four weeks of gunnery training over Lake Ontario. By November 16 he was in Halifax, Nova Scotia waiting to be sent overseas; on December 1, 1942 he disembarked in Bournemouth, England.
Goldspink was posted to the Heavy Conversion Unit at RAF Topcliffe, and began training on the Halifax bomber. Posted to the 419 Squadron RCAF on February 27, he undertook his first mission on March 28. The target was St. Nazaire, France, an enemy naval port on the Loire estuary of the Brittany coastline. This mission was, tragically also Goldspink’s last. His bomber was shot down during the attack, killing all seven crew members on board.
Joseph John Goldspink’s remains rest in the Escoublac Cemetery, France. His name is listed also on the Orono Cenotaph.
Thank you again to Doug MacCheyne for providing information on these veterans.
Courtesy of the Orono Weekly Times with special credit to Carol-Ann Oster
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