Peter Yarema was born in Teulon Manitoba in June 1921, but lived most of his young years in Sarto Manitoba where his mother and father farmed. He left home and school at 17 to work as a farm hand in Southwestern Manitoba.
When the war broke out, Peter travelled to Toronto and enlisted in the Royal Air Force and trained as a pilot. During 1944 alone, as a pilot, Peter completed 2 tours of duty or 50 bombing missions all over Germany, mostly with the 571 Squadron as a Pathfinder flying a fast, twin-engine Mosquito bomber. He and and the only other crew member, a navigator/bomb-aimer, would drop flares to mark targets for formations of following bombers.
For his third tour, he was required to join the RCAF and became an instructor on Lancaster bombers, which also involved flying the Lancaster while others onboard learned the various air crew skills needed for war and flying.
His service earned him a Distinguished Flying Cross, although he wasn’t aware of the honour until years later. When the medal arrived at the family home in Manitoba, Peter’s mother—who spoke little English—stashed it away in a drawer, probably unaware of its importance. He had the honour of “receiving” the medal from his mother! He was never aware of the citation that accompanied the medal until his son found it on the internet by accident many years later or of the correspondence that accompanied the medal.
During the war and while in England on a rail journey to York, he met his future wife Margaret Sootheran on train station platform. Margaret was returning home to Yorkshire from her war assignment at Bletchley Hall. Six weeks later they were married. They were married just short of 70 years.
At the end of the war, Peter returned to Manitoba and attended the University of Manitoba and earned a Batchelor of Arts degree. He tried teaching for a year but did not enjoy it. At the start of the Korean war there was again a need for pilots so he rejoined the RCAF where he was assigned to fly North Stars across the Pacific ferrying supplies and personnel.
He was downsized from the RCAF in 1964 but quickly found work with the Ottawa Children’s Aid Society as case worker. It was work that he excelled at. He retired from the Children’s Aid Society when he turned 65 years old, but was often asked by the Children’s Aid Society to return on a temporary basis until he was almost 75. After that, he still found ways to contribute by volunteering to drive seniors to medical appointments until he was almost 90.
Margaret died in 2014 and Peter in 2019. They are together in the National Military Cemetery in Ottawa.