Gordon Roy McGregor

Gordon Roy McGregor

Gordon Roy McGregor, engineer, aviator, airline executive (b at Montréal 26 Sept 1901; d there 8 Mar 1971). After attending McGill University, he joined Bell Telephone Co of Canada as an engineer in 1923, where he remained until joining the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1938. He went overseas in 1939, seeing action in the Battle of BRITAIN and becoming one of the first 3 RCAF officers to receive decorations in WWII. As a group captain, he obtained a posting to London where, in a brilliantly conceived and executed movement for which he later received the Order of the British Empire, he led an echelon of the Second Tactical Air Force HQ onto the continent in June 1944 - the first allied air unit to base itself on the continent after D-DAY.

In addition to the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Order of the British Empire, he was awarded the Order of Orange Nassau by the Netherlands, the French Croix de guerre and the Czechoslovakian War Cross. McGregor joined TRANS-CANADA AIRLINES in December 1945 and became president in February 1948. During his tenure, the airline's routes and traffic volume grew enormously. In 1968, the year of his retirement, McGregor was invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada.