Post-war Life and Honours
Botterell returned to work at the Bank of Montreal as Assistant Chief Accountant, initially in rural Quebec and then in Montreal, eventually retiring in 1970. He married in 1929, to Maud Goater, who died in 1983; they had two children, Edward and Frances.
During the Second World War, he was an Air Cadet Squadron Commander, in Lachine (now Montreal).
In 1998 Botterell celebrated his 102nd birthday at a hotel in Lille, where he and 16 other Canadian veterans marked the 80th anniversary of the war's end. In 1999 he was guest of honour at a dinner to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force. In 2001 he received a visit from members of the present-day 208 Squadron.
The Canadian War Museum in Ottawa now houses a fence post that was caught in the wing of Botterell's Sopwith Camel during a low-level sortie.
During an interview about his wartime exploits Botterell once said: "I had good hands. I didn't have the fighting acumen of some, like Billy Bishop. I was just a bank clerk. I wasn't one of the very best, but I had my share of action."
His portrait is in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Read more about this topic: Henry Botterell
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