Lloyd Hinson Hopper

Pilot Officer Hinson (Laddie) Hopper was the son of Albert L. and Mabel P. Hopper of Lewisville. An airman in No. 578 Squadron Royal Canadian Air Force, he was 24 when he was killed July 18, 1944.

Hopper’s Halifax aircraft was bound for Caen, France on a bombing run when the inner starboard engine caught fire. They were flying at a low altitude and before the crew could make an emergency landing, the aircraft became uncontrollable and crashed two miles south of Bisham, Berkshire, England. The Halifax, loaded with 9,000 lbs. of bombs, exploded on impact. All aboard were killed. 

If there is any happiness to this story, it is the escape of the other Canadian in the aircrew. He managed to bail out and parachute to safety, surviving the rain of metal from the explosion, which scattered wreckage over a four mile area. Hopper and the five other RAF men killed are remembered on the Runnymede Memorial in Surrey, England. 

Hopper went to Moncton High School and later worked at the CNR offices before enlisting. He received his wings as a wireless air gunner at Dafoe, Saskatchewan in the autumn of 1942 and went overseas in January of 1943. He received his officer’s commission just a few months before his death. 

One of 15 children, Hopper was survived by brothers Charles, in Montreal, Harold, in Detroit, Frank and Carl, in Lewisville, Warman, in Humphrey, and George, serving with the army in Portage la Prairie. His sisters were Mrs. Roy Leaman of Lewisville, with whom his parents resided, Mrs. Forest Wilson and Mrs. Wickliffe Lutes of Parkside, which is today part of the Moncton neighbourhood of Parkton, Mrs. Wallace Lutes of Hildegarde, now also part of Moncton, Mrs. George Coneen of Lakeville, Mrs. Murray Chappell and Mrs. E.E. Lansdale of Humphrey, and Mrs. Sydney Chatten of Peterborough, Ontario.