The Lieutenant Robert Hampton Gray Memorial was erected on January 5, 2021 on the front courtyard of the BC Aviation Museum, and dedicated on August 8, 2021. Six vintage aircraft flew overhead during the ceremony. The memorial honours the only B.C. pilot and the last Canadian to be awarded the Victoria Cross.
Gray was a member of the Royal Canadian Volunteer Reserve who was assigned to the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm. Gray was killed during one of the last raids of the Pacific war as he conducted a successful attack on the Japanese destroyer Amakusa in Onagawa Bay, Japan.
The three granite pillars show Gray in uniform along with a grayscale painting of his final battle, painted by Canadian aviation artist Don Connolly. The five large steel maple leaves on the wall behind the monument represent the five aircraft carriers operating during Lieutenant Gray’s service, and the 42 smaller leaves represent Gray and his fellow Canadians who were killed while serving with the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm.
Twyla Rusnak and Illarion Gallant of Rusnak Gallant Design Ltd. created the garden and backdrop for the memorial. The back is called the rose wall and is a place for people place roses for remembrance.
The Project Team for the memorial consisted of former members of the Royal Canadian Navy: Colonel Stanley Brygadyr (ret’d), Captain Terry Milne (ret’d), Lieutenant-Commander Gerry Pash (ret’d), and Master Seaman Joe Buczkowski (ret’d).
Monuments to Gray also exist in Halifax and in Onagawa. The latter is the only memorial in Japan dedicated to a member of a Foreign Service. The Royal Canadian Navy plans to name its sixth Arctic Offshore Patrol Ship after Gray.
The Aviation Museum was chosen as the site for this memorial to honour Gray as a native of B.C. and as a naval pilot. The local community also played a large role in planning and fundraising for the memorial.
