Facing the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Captain John Wallace Thomas seems to be staring down at something, or someone, slightly to his left. His is the only bust on that rail of the Valiants Memorial with a small tilt on the head.
With his mouth slightly open, he seems to be getting ready to give instructions; instructions like those he gave during the Second World War as he sailed across the Pacific Ocean with the Allied Merchant Navy.
On Nov. 9, 1940, Thomas was 500 kilometres west of the Irish Coast in the Empress of Japan – later renamed the Empress of Scotland – when German airplanes began bombarding the vessel. Only two weeks before, the British Empress had succumbed to these enemy attacks in a close-by location.
The Canadian captain evaded the bombs with the help of his quartermaster, the Chinese national Ho Kan. As one of his crew-members described it at the time to a Canadian Press reporter, Thomas “zigzagged the ship from the danger.”
Newspapers across Canada hailed the “marvellous” escape two days after, when the ship reached a northern port on the coast of Britain.
He was awarded the Order of the British Empire to honour his courage and commanding skills during the attack. He died in 1965, aged 77.