Danish WW2 Pilots

Thyra Hansen (née Petersen)

(1897 - n.a. )

Thyra Hansen lived in Canada before the war. She was engaged as a civilian in the kitchen of Little Norway at Muskoka Airport in 1944.

Thyra Petersen was born on 31 May 1897 in Odense, the daughter of Valdemar Petersen and Kathrine Marie Petersen (née Jensen).[1] She attended school from 1904-11.[2] In November 1914, she moved from Kolding to Copenhagen to work as a servant, but she seemed to have moved from the city in May 1915.[3]

On 25 February 1922, she arrived in New York on-board the SS Aquitania. Her latest permanent address is in London and she stated her procession as cook.[4] This indicates that she moved to London at some point working as a servant. She returned to Denmark on two occasions during the 1920s, presumably to see her family.[5] In 1928, she arrived in Halifax, and she seems to have settled in Canada.[6]

Petersen married Elmo Thanning Hansen in St Ansgar’s Lutheran Church in Toronto on 8 November 1931.[7] He had arrived to Canada from Denmark in May 1929,[8] and worked as a bus boy in Toronto. She worked as a maid.[9] Her husband died in March 1937, suffering from peritonitis and a ruptured appendix.[10]

Thyra, know Hansen, was engaged as a civilian in the kitchen at the Royal Norwegian Air Force Training Camp Little Norway at Muskoka Airport on 8 February 1944. She was assigned to the kitchen and served until 2 December 1944.[11]

Endnotes

[1] DNA: Parish register, Odense, Vor Frue Sogn.

[2] NNA: RAFA-4079/P/Pa/L0004/0036 - Hansen, Thyra.

[3] Politiets registerblade, https://kbharkiv.dk/permalink/post/17-1214664.

[4] Ancestry: New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957.

[5] Ancestry: New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957.

[6] Ancestry: Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935.

[7] Ancestry: Ontario, Canada, Marriages, 1826-1938.

[8] Ancestry: Ontario, Canada, Marriages, 1826-1938.

[9] Ancestry: Ontario, Canada, Marriages, 1826-1938.

[10] Ontario, Canada, Deaths and Deaths Overseas, 1869-1948.

[11] NNA: RAFA-4079/P/Pa/L0004/0036 - Hansen, Thyra.