John Gillespie Magee Jr. was an American born in Shanghai in 1922. At the age of eighteen he came to Canada and joined the RCAF.

        Magee flew a Spitfire and it was his experiences flying that inspired him to write "High Flight". He was piloting on a test flight at 30,000 feet when he got the inspiration to write the poem, which he wrote on the back of a letter to his mother. Three months later, on Dec. 11, 1941, at the age of nineteen, Pilot officer Magee was killed when he collided with another plane in the clouds.

       "High Flight" was later chosen as the official poem of the RAF and the RCAF and was posted in pilot training centres throughout the Commonwealth.

       John Gillespie Magee Jr. is buried in the churchyard cemetery at Scopwick, Lincolnshire, England.

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