Rex Gammon was born in Sarnia on December 11, 1916, the eldest son of James Gammon (born in Bosanquet, Lambton County) and Rhoda Mae (nee Longley, born in Sarnia) Gammon, of 253 Lochiel Street, Sarnia. His father James was a school attendance officer and a former grocer. Rex had two sisters, Drena (became Mrs. Edward Cockerham) and Barbara, and one brother, William (“Bud”) Arthur, who was four years younger than Rex. Rex was a member of the Presbyterian Church and attended Sarnia public schools and Sarnia Collegiate. He would also be a carrier for the Canadian Observer in Sarnia for a time. He was well known in the local sporting community, where he enjoyed playing badminton, curling, basketball and tennis, where he was a member of the Sarnia Tennis Club. Prior to enlisting, he worked as a clerk for two years, as a coremaker for two years at Mueller Limited, and in a shoe store for one year.

Rex, single at the time, enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in London, Ontario on February 7, 1941. He left shortly after for the R.C.A.F. Manning Pool No. 2 at Brandon, Manitoba. Before he left for Brandon, employees of Mueller Limited, where he had been employed for a year, waited on Rex at his home and presented him with a set of military hair brushes. In mid-November of 1941, Rex would graduate from the No. 4 Wireless School of the Royal Canadian Air Force in Guelph. At the time, Rex’s younger brother William, who had also enlisted in the RCAF in May 1941, was a student pilot at an Eastern Canada air command training school. A little over one month later, in late December 1941, brother William Gammon received his wings as a pilot at Moncton, New Brunswick, graduating with the 11th class at No. 8 Service Flying Training School. One day later, Rex Gammon would graduate as a wireless air gunner at No. 1 Gunnery and Bombing School in Jarvis, with his proud parents attending the graduation. Both Rex and William would go overseas together in February 1942. William would take an officer’s training course in Scotland before being placed on patrol duty over the Atlantic Ocean. Rex would go on to attain the rank of Flight Sergeant with the RCAF #22 Operational Training Unit as a Wireless Operator/Air Gunner.

On July 28, 1942, Rex was a member of a crew aboard Wellington aircraft X3201 when it was shot down over their bombing target of Hamburg, Germany. Also killed along with Flight Sergeant-Wireless Operator/Air Gunner Rex Thomas was FS. Patrick C. Noel. Three Canadians, Sgt.s Bell, W.C. Warren, and J. Pierce, were taken prisoners of war. It was not until several weeks after the crash that Rex Gammon was listed as, Missing after air operations. At the same time, three members of the crew that he was with were reported as, Prisoners of war in Germany.

Less than three months later, in October of 1942, Rex’s parents James and Rhoda were advised by R.C.A.F. headquarters at Ottawa that their son’s body had been recovered and buried by the Germans in a cemetery at Neumunster, Germany two days after he was shot down. Earlier in that same week, the Gammon parents had received official news informing them that their other son, William Gammon of the R.C.A.F., was a prisoner of war in Germany. By early December of 1942, Rex Gammon would be officially listed as, Previously reported missing after air operations, now for official purposes presumed dead, overseas. Twenty-five year old Rex Gammon is buried in Ohlsdorf Cemetery, Hamburg, Germany, Grave 4A.E.14. On Rex Gammon’s headstone are inscribed the words, Son of James and Rhonda Gammon Sarnia, Ontario Canada.

On October 8, 1942, Rex’s younger brother RCAF Warrant Officer William “Bud” Gammon, was reported as, Missing after air operations, believed to have been rescued after having been shot down at sea. Three weeks later, parents James and Rhoda Gammon would receive a message from the International Red Cross Society that German sources had reported that their son William Arthur Gammon, was as a prisoner of war in Germany, confined to Stalag 344. Only days later, James and Rhoda Gammon would receive the official news that the body of their other son, Rex Thomas Gammon, had been recovered and buried by the Germans after being shot down in late July 1942.

In May 1944, James and Rhoda Gammon would receive a letter from their son William Arthur, a prisoner of war in Germany, dated February 2, 1944 and posted at Stalag 344, Germany. He praised Canadian organizations which had been sending supplies to those interned by the Nazis and announced the transfer of some of the Sarnia prisoners. He wrote:

 You certainly have to hand it to the different organizations in Canada in regard to looking after us. All Canadians received about two pounds of chocolate and the other day a shipment of plates, cups, forks and spoons, etc., came in. The Dieppe prisoners left for a new camp last week, including Ward, Date, Demary and the rest of the fellows from Sarnia. I was sorry to see them go, however, it will be a change for them.

Nine months later, in mid-February 1945, James and Rhoda Gammon would receive a telegram from Ottawa informing them that their son, William Arthur Gammon, warrant officer, second class R.C.A.F., who is a prisoner of war in Germany, has been promoted to warrant officer, first class. Three months later, in early May of 1945, James and Rhoda Gammon would receive a letter from William, written April 23, 1945, advising them of his escape from the Germans and subsequent treatment at No. 4 Canadian General Hospital after meeting up with American troops. In William’s letter, he revealed that he and five other prisoners had escaped while the camp’s personnel were being marched to another area. He and his friends fled into the woods, where they remained for several days until they ran across units of an American Army. Eventually they returned to the Canadian forces and were hospitalized. William Gammon was able to return to Sarnia after the war. The father of the family, James Gammon, didn’t outlive his son Rex by much, passing away from a heart seizure on November 7, 1945, at the age of 56.

SOURCES: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, J, L, M, N, R, 2C, 2D