Sharing our Links to the Past
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Sketch of Firman C. Gray Written by Wallace F. Gray based upon interview made January 1, 1971 My father, Firman Carleton Gray, was born in Sambro, Nova Scotia, Wednesday, September 29, 1897. His father and brother owned the first lobster cannery factory. At 3 Firman recalls going to the factory and getting whole lobster cooked which he would break and eat. When he was five the family moved to Halifax. They lived across from the commons. In Halifax, Grandfather bought a few houses. Firman started school in Halifax. The family sold the lobster cannery for a large sum of money and the father did very little as an occupation for the rest of his life. When Firman was six, the family moved to Vancouver, BC, traveling by train. There they bought a boarding house. Then they moved to Kitsalana, Vancouver, and Grandfather built and sold houses, probably owing money on this enterprise. They built a house on 10th and U in Vancouver where they lived. (Grandfather built 12 houses; they lived in one of them.) The Bayview Telephone Exchange was built across the street from them. Firman continued in school in Vancouver and graduated, but never went to high school. World War I started when Firman was 17. He was working as a milkman and later in a drug store, even putting up prescriptions. He and a friend decided to enlist. A unit of the Royal Flying Corps was in town recruiting and they joined the outfit which was from England. He enlisted as a mechanic and was sworn in at Vancouver in 1917. The outfit was recruited mechanics and cadets. He was sent to Ontario, Canada. He had wanted to be an MP, but he was sent to the squadron as a mechanic. He was attached to the 80th Canadian Training Squad (CTS.) There were three flights in each squad, each having three airplanes, JN 4s. In two months Firman knew a a lot about airplanes. He flew in the JN 4s. In Winter 1917 he went to Ft. Worth, Texas and trained at Camp Everton. He was almost killed twice--once when spinning a propeller and once when he was to go on a test flight. Someone else went instead and was killed (along with the pilot.) He got in a lot of flying time in Texas. In the Spring of 1918 he returned to Camp Bordon, Ontario, as a first class air mechanic. He would sleep at the hangar then get up to test fly [with a pilot] before 8 a.m. In June 1918, he got up as usual, warmed up the plane and took off with the pilot for the test which was to fly the plane and do acrobatics. After the last loop, the plane went into a spin and crashed into a swamp. On the way down he recalls seeing troops marching down a road. He had no sensation of anything wrong. Next thing he remembered was he was in his knees in mud. He was probably unconscious for a few hours. When he became conscious he unstrapped himself and found he was covered with blood. As he forced himself up his left leg seemed to fall off. Actually it was broken. They had crashed in a big gully, heavily wooded with a river. The swampy ground had saved them. Fifty feet away was hard ground. The lieutenant in the back said, "How are you, is your leg broken?" There was lots of gasoline spilled. The pilot was going to light a cigarette three times. Firman stopped him each time. His whole nose was smashed in. A rescue group came in, dabbed his face. Struts were used to make splints. He experienced no pain. At the camp hospital nurses offered him whiskey which he refused and milk with whiskey in it. ("Drink it all," she said. "I put some whiskey in it."} He refused this also. Next day by ambulance to a baggage car he was sent to Toronto General Hospital where he had surgery the next morning. His leg was set and put in a cast and face cleaned up and two big splints put up his nose. The doctor said he would be in traction for 90 days. It was a week before he could eat. A bunch of "do gooders" came around with cake and ice cream. He learned to pull himself up by a rope over his head. After two to three weeks the leg was hurting and the cast was removed and the leg redressed. There were three in the ward. After 89 days he was told to get up in a wheel chair. He refused. A red-headed Irish nurse with the help of other nurses dragged him into a wheel chair where he was rolled into the middle of a big ward with 50 veterans. All welcomed him with a shout. The group organized wheel chair races. Firman and a friend with one leg would beat everyone. In one race he almost hit a doctor. He grabbed the wheels to stop and fell on the floor. The doctor said, "Get him to bed!" They would go all over the hospital in the wheel chairs. One day he decided to go downtown and was two blocks from the hospital before he was caught and brought back. He was transferred to a convalescent home for four or five months where they operated on his nose by re-breaking bones and shaping the nose. This was very painful and he wouldn’t allow any more. When the Armistice was signed in 1918 he came home. He was on crutches and walked with a cane. He was in crutches in Toronto when the Armistice was signed. He was discharged in 1919. His parents were living in Seattle at the time. Firman worked for Boeing in Seattle on some tale-end of war contracts. Back in Vancouver, he took a 13-month course in mechanical drawing. His parents had moved back to Vancouver. His mother and father and himself decided to go to California. They took a boat to Seattle and transferred to another boat at Seattle bound for Los Angeles. It was while on this latter boat he met and took a fancy to Helen. At San Francisco they went to a show together. Back on board Helen came by and offered to take some pictures. They were together the rest of the time. After his parents settled in Los Angeles, he chased around in Ocean Park. He got a woodworking job then went to work for Douglas Aircraft on Wilshire Blvd. in Santa Monica He then lived with some friends in Santa Monica. He was with Douglas for three and one-half years. Helen’s father (my grandfather, Nels Bungard) died on December 7, 1923 and they got married on December 25, 1923. Still at Douglas. When the Depression came, they kept the telephone to get calls for work. During the Depression Firman worked in the movies for a summer. The plant shut down for three months in November. He went to Lockheed working for 60 cents an hour (he had gotten 80 cents at the movies.) He worked at Lockheed for three and one-half years, doing well until the company went broke. He and Tod Oviatt were the last two left except for management. They opened up an aircraft repair shop at Van Nuys, getting all of the Lockheed repair business after the plant reopened. In 1934 Firman went back to Lockheed. He was a foreman in final assembly, then a superintendent. During World War II he was in charge of engineering flight test. He had 800 persons including 40 supervisors under his leadership. In 1962 he retired. His salary at the time was $18,000 a year. He had worked on all Lockheeds that had ever been built from the time they opened to 1962. The last one he worked on was the 104. [F-104 Starfighter.] Said was on the ground floor on every airplane they built. He started with the "Jenny" (JN4) in Canada and when he retired he was working on jets: from Jenny to Jet. He said, "About the last 10 or 12 years [said this in 1971] it was the first time that we ever had any money." They had acquired property in Topanga and bought stock and "did reasonably well." When I went in the service in 1943 my parents moved up to Topanga and lived there until they moved to Fallbrook.
ADD: I have this to add which I just came across in my Gray documents book (added 14 April 1998.) Interview with my father (undated): Joseph Gray had first lobster cannery. All were fishermen. Fished at Newfound. Bank. They [were] United Empire Loyalists. Came from Gloucester, Mass. Probably his grandparents immigrated Nova Scotia. All fished for lobsters. Joseph got idea of canning lobsters. Soldered holes off as last thing [?] Sold lobster factory and moved to Halifax. Bought house back of Commons. When Firman was 6 family came to Vancouver [B.C.] ‘ Joseph bought grocery store in Fairview near bridge. Owen [Firman’s brother] worked in store then went in wholesale fruit business.
Sold grocery store. Then built house in Kitsilina. |
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