Wetaskiwin District Heritage Museum Centre & City of Wetaskiwin Archives

This week the heritage museum would like to share a badge from the royal air force. The Royal Flying Corps Canada was established in late January 1917 to recruit and train Canadians for service during the First World War. This training program influenced an establishment of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. This would prove to be a significant contribution to the Second World War and was commanded entirely by Canadians. The phrase on the badge “Per Ardua Ad Astra” means through “adversity to the stars” which was the motto. The design of the badge is similar between all the military badges with the only differences being the colours and symbol in the center of the circular such as the navy having an anchor with purple colours and special operations having an upright dagger with red colouring. Charles Gordon Groves was an engineer for the allies in the second world war and fought directly in the first world war. He married Margaret Lucas and would have five children including Tomas Groves who this badge belonged too. Tomas fought in the second World War wearing the badge.