Colin was born in Blackpool, England on January 26, 1943 and gained his early education there.  He left Blackpool Grammar School at age 15 and began an apprenticeship job with the Lancashire Aircraft Corporation commencing in January, 1958.  This employment was entirely in keeping with an early boyhood interest in aircraft.  This apprenticeship involved being indentured for three to five years depending on success on the aircraft courses of instruction.  The first three months comprised routine tasks such as cleaning hangar floors and washing drip trays.  Next came a series of tasks related to aircraft components: the Engine Bay, Airframe Section, Fabric Shop, Supply Section and the Instrument-Electrical Shop.  In the summer of 1960, he qualified for the Aircraft Electrician trade and gained his “M” Licence permitting him to work on aircraft weighing up to 27,000 pounds.

That same year, Colin emigrated to Canada and gained employment for the next three years with Timmins Aviation in Montreal.  Then in September of 1963 he began an RCAF career at Camp Borden as a Munitions and Weapons Technician.  He then served at many stations servicing many types of aircraft.  First it was Station Greenwood, then 4 Fighter Wing followed by CFB Comox.  Then came a break when he attended a one-year French language course in Ottawa that brought about a tour with 433 Squadron at CFB Bagotville.  Again, he returned to Comox on a tour with 407 “Demon” Squadron.

Beginning in 1983, Colin served at NDHQ in the Directorate of Maritime Aircraft Engineering.  While there, he volunteered with the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Section.  In 1990, Colin was posted to Maritime Air Group HQ in Halifax as the Air Group Chief Warrant Officer.  Again, his spare time was devoted to volunteer work, this time with the Atlantic Canada Aviation Museum.  Projects included the Armstrong-Siddeley Cheetah, JA Prestwick and Rhone rotary engines, the F-86 Sabre and Aeronca C-3 aircraft.

On retirement in 1998, Colin and his wife settled in the Annapolis Valley and it was here that he volunteered to undertake leadership of the group restoring the Avro Anson at the Greenwood Military Aviation Museum that had been donated by the Reynolds family of Alberta.  This was the first aircraft to be restored by the museum.  Reconstruction began in October of 2003 and was completed in May of 2009.  Colin’s leadership on this project has placed a most valuable artefact in the Greenwood Museum where its presence will show future generations the critical role it played in both operations and training during the Second World War.

Colin Brooks Ainsworth; an airman of note and a great contributor in the Aviation Heritage of Canada.