Clennell Haggerston "Punch" Dickins OC, OBE, DFC (12 January 1899 - 2 August 1995) was a pioneering Canadian aviator and bush pilot. Northern Indians called him "Snow Eagle;" northern whites called him "White Eagle;" newsmen called him the "Flying Knight of the Northland." C.H. 'Punch' Dickins Birth - Jan. 12 1899 Death - Aug. 3 1995 World War I Flying Ace. A native of Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, he was born Clennell Haggerston Dickins. Known as ‘Tingmashuk' which means ‘birdman' by the Inuits, he was one of Canada's most famous bush pilots and early Arctic explorers by air. He moved with his family to Edmonton, Alberta, at the age of 10. At 17, he joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force, nad then the Royal Flying Corps, where he was trained as a pilot. During World War I he became a superb airman participating in 73 missions and winning the Distinguished Flying Cross for successfully completing missions under fire. In 1921 he became a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force and served there until 1927. A year later he chartered a Fokker Super Universal, G-CASN Seaplane from Western Canada Airways so that he could explore the vast barren lands of the Arctic. The crew consisted of Lieutenant Colonel C.D.H. McAlpine, who was President of Dominion Explorers, Richard Pearce, who was editor of the Northern Miner Newspaper, and W.B. Nadin, who was an engineer. The trip was financed by the Dominion Explorers Limited, Northern Aerial Minerals Exploration, Cyril Knight Prospecting, and Nipissing Mines Companies, so that the explorers could look for fuel, and other resources to help out future exploration trips. On August 28, 1928, the four men set out on there journey, and explored a region with no inhabitants, except willows, lichen, grass, moss, and unmapped lakes. The journey took 12 days and covered over 6,400 kilometres. For his completion of the trip he received the McKee Trophy, which recognized those who made a significant contribution to aviation in Canada. On January 23, 1929, he also flew the first airmail flight into the Arctic, travelling from Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories, to Aklavik on the Arctic Circle. He also explored all the 3,200 kilometres of the Mackenzie River, was the first pilot to fly into the Great Bear Lake, where uranium was found in 1936, and conducted a 10,000 mile air survey of Northern Canada. During World War II he managed six flight training schools, and then joined the DeHavilland Aircraft Ltd., where he helped promote the Beaver bushplane. Dickins who continued to be active until the age of 78, was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1935, Officer of the Order of Canada in 1968, named one of the most outstanding Canadians of the country's first century, and was a co-founder of the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame, of which he was named a member of in 1974. 'Punch' Dickins died in Toronto, Ontario, at the age of 96. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=13711683
