John Goodsir Mackid

John Goodsir Mackid was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in 1914, the son of L. Stewart and Ada Hammond Mackid, and went on to read aeronautical engineering at the University of Washington, graduating with a B.Sc. before joining the Royal Air Force as an Acting Pilot Officer on probation in August 1938. By the time the war was in full swing he had risen to Flight Lieutenant and was serving with No. 97 Squadron, 5 Group, Bomber Command, flying Avro Lancasters. His DFC, gazetted on 23 January 1942, was awarded jointly with Squadron Leader Sherwood in recognition of their leadership during a hazardous daylight raid on the German battle cruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorst while they lay at Brest in December 1941; the citation noted that Mackid had pressed home the attack with great determination and played a conspicuous part in the success achieved. On 27 April 1942 he took off from RAF Lossiemouth as pilot of Lancaster I L7572 (coded OF:L) on one of the RAF’s early attempts to strike the battleship Tirpitz in her Norwegian fjord anchorage; the aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire and crashed near Kaldadammen in Trøndelag, Norway. Mackid died the following day, 28 April 1942, aged 28, and is buried at Trondheim (Stavne) Cemetery, Norway (grave reference A IV British. J. 3.). He is also commemorated on the Bomber Command Memorial Wall in Nanton, Alberta, and in the Canadian Second World War Book of Remembrance.