| Notes |
- Joe Ready was born and raised in Kensington, PEI the middle child of five children to Annie Mullin and James Ready. He graduated from St. Dunstan’s University in Charlottetown, PE. After a brief time with the RCAF, he went to England in 1939 and enlisted in the Royal Air Force where he flew many dangerous missions.
One of the many friends Joe made in England was a fellow pilot, Freddie Harrold, whose parents lived in Cambridge, England. In October 1939 Fred Harrold was killed in the Battle of Britain. Joe continued to visit Fred’s parents and they all but adopted the Island airman as their own son.
On April 18, 1941 Joe’s plane crashed in an air accident during a costal patrol in England. The Harrolds were devastated by this loss and requested special permission that Joe be buried in an Anglican cemetery next to their son. Joe was buried with full military honors in a service conducted by Capt. Reggie MacDonald, his former parish priest from Indian River. Following these two deaths, the Harrolds opened their home to all other soldiers from Kensington and area including Joe Ready’s cousin, Joe McIver.
Shortly after receiving word of his death, his siblings received the last letter he had written to them. This letter reads:
“By the time you receive this, I’ll have gone on my last flight and arrived, at last, at the end of the trail.
I know it will be a great comfort to you to know that I was prepared to face Our Lord and that, even as you read this, I will be close by, in spirit, praying for you all.
Ever since I started flying in Canada I have realized that this was liable to happen suddenly, at any time, and more so since the war started. So I have never left the ground without being prepared. Knowing this, I’m sure you won’t feel too badly about it all as the best any person could wish another is that they arrive safely in Heaven. I realize I have been more or less a great worry to you most of the time between slackness and sickness and I want to thank you all, for being so patient with all my faults and drawbacks during our time together. I realize also that it was a great sacrifice for you to finance my way through college and shoulder my hospital bills and I have always intended and hoped to be able at some time to pay you back, but it was just not to be so. At any rate, I want you to know that I have always appreciated it and always felt deeply grateful despite the fact I may not have seemed so at the time. It was not nice dying so far from home and among comparative strangers but I thank God for the really great privilege of being able to give my life as an aid, small though it may have been, in overthrowing one who would destroy religion, freedom and all that’s worth living for. I always thank God for the really great privilege of having such a brother and sister as you. Not everyone is so fortunate.
And, now, it is time for a final good-bye In knowing that you will all be leading good Christian lives I’ll be up there with Papa and Mama, watching and waiting for you and praying for your success and happiness. Until the day when we shall all be, once again reunited. May God bless you all.
Your loving brother, Joe ”
Researched by Desmond McIvor
- Joseph Dougald Ready, was born on 11 August 1914 in Kensington, Prince Edward Island. He received his primary education at Kensington School, and pursued his secondary education at St. Dunstan's University in Charlottetown where he graduated with a B.A. degree. He then attended St. Mary's College in Brockville, Ontario for one year. While at university, Joseph was active in sports and played baseball, football, and hockey. While in England with the Royal Air Force (R.A.F.), he also played on a Canadian hockey team. Joseph was a substitute teacher at Margate and Kensington schools in between university semesters. He moved to England and joined the R.A.F. two months before the outbreak of World War II. Joseph was in active service in the Coastal Command and was on patrol during the evacuation of Dunkirk. He was due to be promoted to Flying Officer at the time of his death. Joseph died in an aircraft accident on 8 April 1941. In the event of his death, he had arranged for a letter to be delivered to his siblings. Joseph was buried in Cherry Hinton Cemetery, Cambridge, England.
From the Collection of Kathleen Ready McIver at Memory PEI.
http://www.gov.pe.ca/paroatom/index.php/kathleen-ready-mciver-collection
- 1941 June Quarter death-
Name: Ready, Joseph D.---Age: 26
District: Maidstone (Volume & Page: 2a & 2036)
Pilot Officer lost his life while on an anti-submarine patrol, flying 500 RAF Squadron's Blenheim aircraft over the North Sea.
From the Canadian Virtual War Memorial-
Military Service:-
Rank: Pilot Officer
Trade: Pilot
Service Number: 42725
Age: 26
Force: Air Force
Unit: Royal Air Force
Division: 500 Squadron
A member of the RAF hockey team.
Son of James A. and Annie M. Ready of Kensington, Prince Edward Island, Canada; brother of Mary, Arthur and Kathleen.
Pilot Officer Joseph Dougauld Ready is commemorated on Page 605 of Canada's Second World War Book of Remembrance.
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McIverPEIAncestry.ca Electronic Family Tree
1914 - 1941 (26 years)
