Choloy, France

1958 – 2 (F) Wing – Assorted Sources

F/L Robert George Chitham

Comments by Robert Chitham via Don Norrie:

Robert George Chitham served with the Royal Artillery during WW2. He took his medical training after the war. In 1953 he was enlisted by the RCAF as a civilian doctor and posted to 2 Wing. He was then transferred to Metz where he remained until 1956. He was then commissioned as a F/L and returned to 2 Wing as one of the hospital doctors. He did a 6 week tour in Rabat as part of the medical officer rotation program at the time. Until the CF-100 crash into the hospital Dr. Chitman carried out the routine duties of a practicing doctor.

His son Robert Chitham goes on to say that the first thing his father became aware of after the crash was being trapped in his consulting room, which was on fire. The only means of escape was to push down the badly damaged wall, which he did. He then supervised the evacuation of a ward including some incubator babies, not realizing the extent of his own injuries. It transpired that he received 70% burns to the upper parts of his body. Being English, he was shipped back to the UK where he took 3 years to recover. He joined the famous "Guinea Pig Club" which had many Canadian WW2 burn victims. Some of which he kept in contact with, as well as some friends from Grostenquin, long after the accident. Because of his burns he was unable to practice conventional medicine as he had lost most of his fingers in the fire (burning paint from the walls) and thus switched to genetics. He eventually became the Clinical Genetics Registrar at St. Georges Hospital in London. Doctor Robert George Chitham died at home in Sussex in July 1993. He left his loving wife, 3 daughters and a son.

One interesting trivia story was that my father's watch, a Rolex, came off his wrist in the fire, so the Officers Mess bought him an Omega (an automatic as he couldn't wind a watch) which they presented to him. However, his Rolex was subsequently found in the hospital wreckage, black but still working, and returned to him. The foregoing by son Robert Chitham to Donald M Norrie, March 19, 2003.