Wilfrid Reid "Wop" May, (March 20, 1896 – June 21, 1952) was a Canadian flying ace in the First World War and a leading post-war aviator. He was the final Allied pilot to be pursued by Manfred von Richthofen before the German ace was shot down on the Western Front in 1918. After the war, May returned to Canada, pioneering the role of a bush pilot while working for Canadian Airways in Northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories.
May was born in Carberry, Manitoba, the son of a carriage maker, Alexander Esson May, and his wife, Elizabeth May (née Reid). He was the third of four children.
His family moved to Edmonton in 1902. On the way, they stayed with family and friends; his two-year-old cousin, Mary Lumsden, could not pronounce Wilfrid and called him "Woppie". This gave him his nickname "Wop". He attended the Edmonton High School (now Victoria School of Performing and Visual Arts) while in Edmonton.
May joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) in February 1916 during the First World War. He rose through the enlisted ranks to sergeant and spent most of 1916 as a gunnery instructor in Canada. In 1917, his battalion, the 202nd (Sportsman's) Battalion, was shipped to England, where he and his friend Ray Ross applied to join the Royal Flying Corps. His first flight resulted in the accidental destruction of his own and another aircraft; nevertheless, the RFC accepted his application, and May resigned from the CEF. After initial training in London in October, he was moved to a fighter training squadron and graduated in February 1918.
On April 9, 1918, Lieutenant May was transferred to No. 209 Squadron of the newly created Royal Air Force (the squadron being a unit of the Royal Naval Air Service until April 1, when the RAF was created). The squadron was commanded by another Canadian, May's former school friend Roy Brown, who had never lost a subordinate pilot. May spent a few days getting used to his Sopwith Camel and was sent to France.
May fought his first aerial combat on April 20, 1918. The German Fokker Triplane he was duelling crashed of its own accord during the brief fight.
The following day, April 21, saw 209 Squadron again on patrol. Due to his inexperience, Brown gave May similar instructions as before – he was to stay out of the fights and simply keep an eye out. Around 10 a.m., the squadron attacked a group of German Triplanes. At first, during the dogfight, May circled above. But when he spotted a German plane doing the same thing, he decided to launch an attack.
May chased a German aircraft that fled into the middle of the dogfight, and fired on him. The German he was chasing was Wolfram von Richthofen, cousin of Manfred von Richthofen, the "Red Baron". Wolfram had also been given orders to sit out above the fight and watch because he was a novice flyer too.
On seeing his cousin being attacked, Manfred, in a red Fokker Dr.I, flew to his rescue and fired on May, causing him to pull away and saving Wolfram's life. Richthofen pursued May across the Somme.
May spoke about this incident years later, saying, "the first thing I knew I was being fired on from the rear ... [and] all I could do was try to dodge my attacker. I noticed it was a red tri-plane, but if I realized it was Richthofen, I would have probably passed out on the spot. I kept on dodging and spinning, I imagine from about 12,000 feet until I ran out of sky and had to hedge hop over the ground. Richthofen was firing at me continually, [and] the only thing that saved me was my poor flying. I didn't know what I was doing myself and I do not suppose that Richthofen could figure out what I was going to do".
Roy Brown, who was flying above, noticed the Red Baron chasing May, dove steeply at very high speed to intervene and then had to climb steeply to avoid hitting the ground. Richthofen turned to avoid this attack, and then resumed his pursuit of May. Richthofen was shot and killed at some point during this encounter, however, the identity of the person who shot down the Red Baron remains a subject of much dispute.
May continued flying with 209 Squadron until the end of the war and was credited with downing 15 enemy aircraft and probably five others. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1918. He relinquished his RAF commission on May 8, 1919, with the rank of captain.
May returned to Edmonton after the war. He and his brother Elgin rented a Curtiss JN-4 "Canuck" and started May Airplanes Ltd., opening Canada's first "air harbour" (or aeroport) in a rented pasture, known as May Field, and is near the Mayfield neighborhood. The aircraft is hanging in the lobby of the new Royal Alberta Museum which opened on October 3, 2018. They appeared at various functions during 1919, and are now considered one of the first barnstorming companies in the world.
In September 1919, May Aeroplanes was hired by Edmonton Police Chief Hill during their manhunt for John Larson, wanted on two counts of murder (including of a police officer) and a break-in. May flew Edmonton Police Detective James Campbell to the small town of Edson, and Larson was caught soon thereafter. This was the first time an aircraft was used in a manhunt.
They were soon joined by George Gorman to become May-Gorman Airplanes Ltd. – George Gorman delivered the Edmonton Journal newspaper to Wetaskiwin, 45 miles (72 km) south of Edmonton.
May and Gorman were hired by Imperial Oil Limited to fly two Junkers airplanes, equipped with skis, from New York to Edmonton in early 1921. Imperial Oil planned to use these planes in the Northwest Territories to service its proposed oil developments along the Mackenzie River at what would later become known as Norman Wells. In March, Gorman and Elmer Fullerton flew these two planes across the 60th parallel (the first ever flight into the Northwest Territories) into the Canadian subarctic, proving that aircraft could operate in sub-zero temperatures. This was the start of aerial exploration in the most distant parts of Canada. In 1924, the business failed.
In 1924, May married Violet "Vi" Bode in November. He decided to get a ground-based job, joining National Cash Register in Dayton, Ohio where he went for training. While working on a lathe, he was hit in one eye by a shard of steel, and from then until 1939, he began slowly going blind in that eye.
Convinced that flying really was his calling, he returned to Edmonton and formed the Edmonton and North Alberta Flying Club in 1927 and became a flight instructor.