Lieutenant John Oliver Allison

Lieutenant (Air Force).

Military Cross
Description: For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. Often he descended to within a few hundred feet of the ground and, regardless of the danger, bombed and machine-gunned the enemy. On one occasion he carried out four bombing raids in one day at low altitudes.
Date of award: 1919-01-10
Source: London gazette; Gazette Issue #31119 published on the 10 January 1919. Page 75 of 9
Comment: Was awarded the MC during the Turkish campaign.

Son of Joseph Allison, of Maxwell, Ontario.

" ALLISON, Lieutenant John Oliver - Military Cross - award effective 25 June 1918 as per London Gazette dated 11 January 1919. Home in Maxwell, Ontario (born there 8 October 1891); medical student at University of Toronto. Proceeded overseas as a Lieutenant, 162nd Battalion, CEF, November 1916; to RFC, 6 January 1917; appointed Flying Officer and seconded to RFC, 6 July 1917. To Egypt, 27 April 1917. Hospitalized, Basra, 26 August 1917. Shot down and killed while bombing and strafing enemy positions. See Major J. Everidge, "The History of No.30 Squadron", Cross and Cockade Journal, Winter 1966, stating he joined that unit on 17 August 1917 and was killed in action, 15 May 1918. University of Toronto Roll of Service says he had volunteered to take a Colonel in charge of Mapping Section over Altun Kupri, on the Lesser Zab, to gather important information on enemy positions, but ORB says he was killed with a 2nd Lieutenant Observer."

Military Experience : U OF T COTC for 2 years.

Originally overseas unit 162nd Battalion. Transfered to RFC, Killed in action on a reconnaissance mission over enemy lines in Mesopotamia.

Seconded to 30 Sqdn.