William Leslie FALARDEAU. Sergeant, Pilot, R80157 Royal Canadian Air Force, attached to 22 Operational Training, RAF Wellesbourne Mountford, Warwickshire. Son of Earl and Hilda Falardeau, of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He was crew of five in a Vickers Wellington IC R1654, bomber which crashed in poor weather near Chipping Norton, Gloucestershire 14 October 1941 aged 19 The crew were on a night navigation exercise.
At rest in St Peter Churchyard, Little Rissington, Gloucestershire.
The following credited to -
http://www.wardeadofnorthoxfordshire.com/THE-FALLEN-OF-CORNWELL.php
On 14th October 1941 Vickers Wellington XC Mk 1C R1654 of 22 Operational Training Unit took off from Wellesbourne for a navigation exercise. Encountered poor weather conditions and while flying in cloud lost control and dived into the ground at 1044 not far from the Gloucestershire-Oxfordshire border about 1 mile west of Cornwell, 3 miles west of Chipping Norton. Five aircrew were killed.
William Leslie Falardeau was a camera grip on the 1940 Powell and Pressburger film "49th Parallel" and also played an aviator on the rescue float plane as it arrives at Cape Wolstenholme. In the film, he was shot and apparently killed by the Nazis before they commandeered the aircraft. A second role for him was as a double for Raymond Massey in a few scenes. He died before the film was released. He had been a keen aircraft enthusiast and won cups for his model planes. He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in November 1940 and left for England in August 1941.
