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Steveston Tyees, 1937, Robert Francis.
Photo courtesy City of Richmond Archives, photograph #1987 104 52.
In honour of our soldiers: Robert Lewis Francis
Published 2:50 PDT, Wed July 30, 2025
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In our previous series, we learned about the 56 men who gave their lives during World War I and World War II, whose names had been inscribed on the Richmond Cenotaph and were given a poppy street sign. Following our poppy street sign series, we moved onto the young soldiers whose names were inscribed on the Richmond Cenotaph, but did not have a road named after them. Those names were compiled of the 23 young men who lost their lives in World War I, World War II, or in the Korean War.
Robert Lewis Francis was born on Jan. 19, 1920 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and lived with his parents James and Ann Francis at 960 No. 1 Road. He attended Richmond High School and graduated in 1939, he would go onto attend Sprott-Shaw where he took a commercial course before working as a storekeeper for Nelson Bros Fisheries and BC Packers as a pilchard tallyman. He also worked on his parents’ farm as a truck driver.
In his personal time, Robert played lacrosse for the Steveston Tyees, and was given the nickname Horse, he also enjoyed hunting, shooting, and rugby.
Robert enlisted into the Royal Canadian Air Force and began his service in Edmonton, before being transferred to bases in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. In 1943, he became an Air Bomber and was posted overseas, after a year of service he would be promoted to Warrant Officer.
While stationed overseas, in a letter to his parents, Robert detailed the experience of his bombing rides over Berlin, as anti-aircraft guns lit up the sky and his aircraft dropped a 8000 lb block buster bomb. He also mentioned in the letter, the stress and experience when three German aircrafts pursued Roberts’ aircraft as they were heading back to England.
On April 23, 1944, the Lancaster Aircraft #ND753 was shot down during a night operation in Dusseldorf, Germany. Seven men aboard were killed, Robert Francis was buried in the Military Cemetery in Dusseldorf, before being reburied in the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery in Kleve, Germany.
Francis Road had already been in existence since 1902 as there was a station for the city’s train. Eventually the road would be named after James Henry Francis’ family, who lived and farmed in the area. Although Francis Road was not directly named after Robert Lewis Francis for his contributions during war, it was still indirectly named after him and his family.
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