When you walk through Moncton’s peaceful old west end today, you can hardly imagine the tragedies people on West Street faced in the horrible summers of 1943 and ‘44. Vaughn Bertram MacLellan and Eleanor Woods MacLellan, who lived at 60 West Street, first lost their airman son William Robert on August 10, 1943. They then lost their airman son Vaughn Albert on June 19, 1944. The MacLellans lived at 60 West Street, just across from Emily Beers at 67 West. 

Mrs. Beers, widow of a railway conductor killed in a train collision at Acadieville years before, lost her airman son Kenneth just a month after her friends and neighbours the MacLellans received the most dreaded of telegrams for the second time. 

Bob was the first of the MacLellan brothers to die. He was a 23-year-old Spitfire pilot based in the Middle East. When he went missing in August of 1943, he was not in the cockpit of his fighter but aboard an Abermarle aircraft west of Tarifa, Spain over the Strait of Gibraltar. Flight Sergeant MacLellan was one of nine killed on a ferry flight headed for England, where he was to enjoy some leave. He is remembered on the Malta Memorial to Commonwealth airmen who died flying from bases in the Mediterranean area and who have no known graves. 

Bob MacLellan was an accomplished hockey and baseball player, widely known in the city’s sporting circles. He was a member of Moncton High School’s Class of ‘39 and worked in the Canadian National Railway’s Electrical Department in Moncton before he enlisted. He received his wings at Aylmer, Quebec in August of '42 and went overseas that November. 

Vaughn MacLellan was a crew member aboard a Liberator aircraft on anti-submarine patrol when he was killed. The aircraft flew into high ground obscured by clouds at Glengad Head, County Donegal, Ireland. He was a wireless operator air gunner in No. 59 Squadron RAF when he died at age 22. His funeral was held in Ballykelly parish church, in Londonderry County, Northern Ireland. He is buried in the churchyard there. 

Vaughn MacLellan graduated from Moncton High School in 1940 and enlisted in November of that year. He received his wings at No. 3 Wireless School in Winnipeg and went overseas in February of 1941, where he flew with Coastal Command until his death. A brother, Donald, and a sister, Audrey were both at home. His mother Eleanor was the Silver Cross Mother one year at the Remembrance Day service.