Bernard McGouran

By Nicolaas Van Rijn Toronto Star

Bernard McGouran was winger for Marlies

A funeral service will be held tomorrow for Bernard (Red) McGouran, a former hockey player and electrical contractor.
Mr. McGouran died suddenly at St. Michael’s Hospital. He was 67.

Born in Toronto, Mr. McGouran attended St. Basil’s School and graduated from St. Michaels College in 1939. An avid hockey player, he played right wing for St. Michael’s College and the Toronto Marlboros hockey club before World War 11 interrupted his career.

He worked as an electrical installer for a short while after graduating, wiring new houses in Leaside. In 1941 he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force.
He took his basic training at several flying fields in eastern Canada and was posted to England later that year as a bombardier-navigator with 434 Squadron (The Bluenoses), 6 Bomber Command. Dangerous missions “He flew Lancaster and Halifax bombers” his wife Johanna said yesterday. “Most of his missions took him over Germany, over the Ruhr Valley, and while he never talked much about his experience, he felt it was something that had to be done.”

Mr. McGouran, who held the rank of flying officer, flew 42 bombing missions, barely making it back from one of them. “His aircraft was hit while over Germany and while they managed to fly it back over to the English Channel, they weren’t able to make it all the way home and ditched,” his wife said. “he spent some time in hospital after that, and needed plastic surgery, but it didn’t stop him from flying again.”

He returned to Toronto in November, 1944. He was married in 1945 and began working as an electrical contractor and purchasing agent.
“But he did love hockey,” his wife recalled and he wanted to get back to the game. So he went up to Barrie in 1947 to try again.” she said.
He played with the Springfield Indians, a farm team for the Boston Bruins at the training camp in Barrie, but decided to give it up, she said. “He found out that, after spending those years in Europe, he wasn’t ready to go on the road again, especially not with a wife and children at home.
Mr McGouran returned to the electrical business in Toronto, where he worked in the industry until his semi-retirement just before his death.
Mr. McGouran leaves his wife, daughters Kathleen, Maureen, Bernadette, Joan, Anne, Margaret, Mary and Karen: sons Thomas, Bernard, Michael,Timothy and John; and 18 grandchildren.

Visitors may call from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. today at the Jerrett Scarborough Chapel, 660 Kennedy Rd. (between Eglinton and St. Clair Ave E.)

The funeral Mass will be celebrated Wednesday at 10 a.m. in St Maria Goretti Church, 717 Kennedy Rd., with burial in Holy Cross Cemetery.