Dave Bartlet presents a fascinating 2 frame exhibit of the Royal Flying Corp training program in Canada at BNAPEX 2026.

Keywords

Royal Flying Corps; Military postal history; Flight training; Long Branch; Camp Borden; Armour Heights; Leaside; Deseronto; Beamsville; Texas.

Summary

Dave Bartlet’s exhibit explores Royal Flying Corps training in Canada during 1917–1918 through postal history, photographic postcards, correspondence and military documents. A recruiting poster introduces the skilled and unskilled trades supporting pilot instruction, while maps locate the Ontario training centres and the Texas airfields used during the winter, establishing the geographical scope of the two frames. (Frame 1)

Long Branch, Camp Borden and Armour Heights illustrate cadet life, aircraft, training facilities and accidents through contemporary postcards and mail. Field post office and civilian cancellations, military crests and redirected correspondence document communications with these establishments; an incoming Long Branch cover travelled on the Ottawa–Toronto flight of 27 August 1918, catalogued in AMCN2 as an RAF flight. Camp Borden correspondence also extends the narrative into 1921, beyond the principal wartime collecting period. (Frame 1)

Leaside combines camp correspondence and Christmas greetings with a cover carried by Captain Brian Peck from Montreal to Toronto on 24 June 1918. AMCN2 records 124 pieces of mail on this flight, with triangular cancellations dated 23 June because poor visibility postponed departure; the exhibited cover connects this pioneering airmail event directly with the training establishment at Leaside. (Frame 2)

The Deseronto section presents Camps Mohawk and Rathbun through aircraft photographs, correspondence, illustrated cards and military insignia. Beamsville material includes field post office cancellations and distinctive school letterhead, displayed alongside an unused RFC leave pass; personal messages and photographs provide contemporary evidence of the people, aircraft and institutions involved in the Canadian wartime training programme. (Frame 2)

Texas Christmas cards and photographs illustrate the winter training period of 1917–1918, including material from Camp Everman near Fort Worth. The concluding service certificate of carpenter Archibald McFarlane and schedule of discharge allowances shift attention from flying to demobilization, completing an account that combines aviation history with the postal and personal records of those serving in the training organization. (Frame 2)