Courtesy Chilliwack Museum and Archives)

Jean Longstaff, with the assistance of Jim Busby in Canada, has submitted the following:

Russell Leslie Coote was the second son of Tynesiders Andrew Leslie and Fanny Coote (nee Kirby) who had emigrated to Canada in 1893 and settled in British Columbia. He was born on 17th June 1898 in Chilliwack and had three older siblings, Hilda, Janet and Ian. His younger sister Ada was born in 1900.

His father Andrew was a military man, and Ginger, as Russell became known because of his distinctive red hair, followed in his footsteps, starting as a boy bugler in the 104th (Westminster Fusiliers) Regiment, a local militia group. In April 1915 at the end of his father’s home leave 16 year old Ginger returned to New Westminster with him to enlist as a bugler with the 47th Battalion when he became Private 628371 in “D” Company, and leaving his student days behind, travelled with the Battalion to summer camp at Mount Vernon, and then returned to winter billets at Queen’s Park, New Westminster. November saw the 47th Battalion embark for England on board the SS Missanabie, arriving in Plymouth on 22nd and a posting to camp at Bramshott, Hampshire.

April 1916 saw Ginger attached to a sniper course at Aldershot where he was found to be a natural marksman, a skill he had honed whilst shooting on the family farm, and whilst on the course he was appointed as acting Lance Corporal. In August the Battalion proceeded to France, and although the CEF were officially trying to avoid sending underage soldiers to the front, if your father was the Major it didn’t seem so important. So Ginger went to France as an 18 year old sniper, part of the 10th Infantry Brigade, 4th Canadian Division.

Granted UK leave with his father and brother at the beginning of December 1916, he alone returned to the 47th and joined them in the fighting at Vimy Ridge. Returning to England on 16th April 1917 for officer training at the Canadian Training School at Bexhill, at the end of June, just two weeks after his 19th birthday, he was commissioned as a Lieutenant, and could now legitimately be posted to the front.

Ginger rejoined the 47th in August at the Zouave Valley, but just two weeks later he was wounded in the right foot and his right shoulder during an attack at Green Crassier, Lens and after initial treatment at hospital in Camiers was invalided back to England on the HS Princess Elizabeth and admitted to hospital in Wandsworth, London. Granted medical leave in September, he found fit for duty by the London Medical Board in October and posted to the 16th Reserve Battalion at Seaford and attached to the School of Musketry. Taken ill again in November and treated at military hospitals at St. Albans and Shorncliffe, by the time he was found to be fit for duty he had been absent from his unit for four months, and so was struck off the strength of the 47th Battalion.

While waiting for a new posting to France he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps, in what turned out to be the beginning of a life long association with aviation. The Armistice came before his training was complete, so he did not see front line service, but he did qualify as a pilot, and prior to discharge, was appointed Lieutenant as recognition that he had finished his training. Ginger returned to Canada at the end of September 1919. His return to Chilliwack was delayed for a few weeks though, when he fell ill on the train as it reached Calgary, and he was admitted to the Military Hospital. He was demobilised in Victoria, British Columbia on 28h October, returning to Chilliwack in time to greet his parents at their homecoming event.

Russell returned to work at the family farm after the war and remained active with the New Westminster Fusiliers. On 20th September 1921 he married Helen Georgina Eliza Chadsey in Vancouver, a marriage which did not last, although they had a daughter Jocelyn in 1924. In 1926 he bought his first plane and made a living running scenic tours and charter flights to rural mining communities in northern British Columbia, and also founded the Chilliwack Flying Club. With his father as co-director he founded Ginger Coote Airways, and he became known for making numerous mercy flights and helped establish a mail flight route from Vancouver to Whitehorse. He sold his airline in 1941 when it was absorbed into Canadian Pacific.

Russell married for the second time in June 1937 when he wed widow Verna Lambeth Foster in Richmond, BC, but this marriage too ended in divorce. In 1940 he was appointed flying instructor in the Royal Canadian Air Force and was posted to Air Observer School based at Edmonton, Alberta. He was inducted into the British Columbia Aviation Hall of Fame and his name is featured on a wall of fame at Vancouver International Airport.

Post war Ginger married again, to Molly MacLachlan. He settled down to run a charter aviation business based in Vancouver, and farm on the eastern edge of Chilliwack. He died at Essondale, British Columbia on 10th January 1970 and is buried at Chilliwack Cemetery.

Russell Leslie Coote is remembered in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on NUT159