Hamilton man connects with late fathers’ history through restored WWII Spitfire fighter plane

70-year-old Wilson Nixon from Hamilton was able to connect with a part of his fathers’ history he never knew, leaving him with a profound sense of pride and gratitude. The connection came through a plane from World War II.

“I remember hearing my father say on two separate occasions during dogfights he watched off either one of his wings his two best friends shot down and killed,” Wilson said.

Wilson’s father, Harold Nixon of Hamilton was a pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Harold flew in North Africa, Malta, and Europe, he was shot down and escaped from a German prisoner-of-war camp and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. Harold Nixon died in 1985.

Wilson wasn’t aware of his dad’s background as a fighter pilot. After Harold’s death, Wilson’s mom told him about his father’s war record.

Wilson received an unexpected call asking if he would like to go for a flight in the same Spitfire his father flew in the war. The plane was being restored in England, equipped with a second cockpit for a passenger.

Once in the air, the pilot asked Wilson, who has little flying experience to take over, not just any plane, but his father’s Spitfire. “Wilson, are you ready, are you ready to take over? and I said, ‘more than ready, let’s do it.'”

“Picturing my father sitting in front of me, flying the plane, attempting to channel my father, thinking what he must have gone through every day all those years over there, what he was up against, the vulnerability of this small fighter plane,” Wilson said.

The experience gave Wilson a whole new perspective on the war and his father, “I wish I would have had the opportunity to talk to my father and ask him questions about so many things that I learned.”