Percy Bergart

Royal Canadian Air Force

Percy was born 12 August 1922 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to parents Jessie Stromvas and Nathan Bergart, Ukrainian Jews that had immigrated to Canada in 1907. He moved to Toronto in 1939 and enlisted with the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1941 during the Second World War. He trained and qualified as a radar technician. 

Once qualified, he spent most of the war attached to the Royal Air Force in Britain. He reached the rank of sergeant and was eventually in charge of the radar section of 49 Squadron. The squadron was equipped with Lancaster bombers and Percy was responsible for the upkeep of their radar systems. The squadron took part in numerous bombing raids over Northwest Europe and attacked targets including a German scientific research centre, gun batteries, a V-1 flying bomb storage site, and the German Baltic Fleet. 

Percy recalled his time in the service fondly, “I met interesting people, I was rarely in real danger… a great part of my life.” Percy recognized that the Second World War, “was a particularly important time and the enemy had to be eradicated.” He also drew unfortunate parallels between the world today and the world of tyranny he volunteered to help destroy, “so much of it is coming back now. It doesn’t say much good about us people. We have an innate war inclination. We’re not very nice.” The 102-year-old was thoughtful and wise. He questioned, “why are we so ready to fight each other, why do we tear our guts out against each other? We never seem to learn. If there is a God, he created a very unreliable creature. So what do we do? We stumble along.” 

After the war Percy attended law school which was covered by Veterans Affairs. He later established a career as an attorney in the Toronto area. He married Cissy Rubin in 1950 and after her death he married Vera Martin in 1993. Percy passed away on 11 November 2024 at Fairhaven Home in Peterborough, Ontario. He was 102 years old.