Sous-fonds SF13 - Ernest Lloyd Janney estate sous-fonds

Ernest Lloyd Janney was born June 16, 1893 at Galt, Ont., (now Cambridge). On Sept. 16, 1914 Sam Hughes, Minister of Miltia and Defence, approved formation of a Canadian Aviation Corps (CAC), appointing Janney as a captain and its provisional commander. He also authorized for expenditure of up to $5,000 for an airplane. Janney went to the United States and purchased a Burgess-Dunne biplane, manufactured at Marblehead, Massachusetts, with this funding.
En route to Quebec City, the engine gave out and was forced to land at Deschaillons, east of Trois-Rivières. The company sent a mechanic and parts to Canada. On Sept. 29, the aircraft arrived in Quebec where it was loaded aboard the SS Athenia. Janney telegraphed some auto mechanics in Galt, ordering them to report to him for services with the CAC. On Oct. 3, 1914 the First Canadian Contingent sailed for Britain, with its one airplane on the deck of the Athenia and the three CAC members aboard the SS Franconia.
Upon arriving in England, the regular troops who had travelled about the SS Athenia were sent to Salisbury Plain for advanced training. Janney and the other CAC members went along, but the Burgess-Dunne—damaged during the passage—was never repaired. Janney spent the next several weeks travelling about Britain, learning what he could about aviation, and on Nov. 6, 1914 he presented a proposal for a Canadian Air Corps to Major-General E.A.H. Alderson. Janney recommended a unit with four airplanes, seven officers, seven sergeants and 32 mechanics. He had calculated the cost for one year as totalling $116,679.25.
None of the CAC personnel, including Janney, had ever been properly gazetted or attested as members of the CEF, and Alderson’s reaction to Janney’s expensive project was one of surprise. Anderson requested further instruction from the Department of Militia and Defence, which replied that it was their understanding that Janney and Sharpe had been sent over with the CEF in order to join the Royal Flying Corps and that Janney and Sharpe were “not intended to organize a flight unit.”
In December of 1914 Janney resigned his commission, (although in fact there were no documents bestowing one upon him) and in January 1915, he sailed for Canada. Back in Canada, Janney bought a second-hand plane (Caudron) in the U.S. and sought permission to operate a flying school near Toronto, in partnership with Bernard Hale. Within a few months of the school opening, it closed, and Janney headed again for the U.S. In 1917 Janney organized the Janney Aircraft Company in Munroe, Mich., selling stock and building one plane. As with many of Janney’s ventures this was shortlived and Janney returned to Canada in May 1918. In 1919 Janney became general manager of Canadian Northern Traders, a company that planned to use five aircraft and an unspecified number of airships to exploit resources in northern Quebec. On Oct. 16, 1919, the Ottawa Citizen newspaper reported that Janney was arrested in Cornwall, Ont., and charged with using a bad cheque to buy one such aircraft. In January 1921, he appeared in Edmonton and announced plans to run an air service from Peace River, Alta., to Fort Norman, Northwest Territories, using dirigibles.
The air service never started. Alberta authorities halted trading in company stock, but he continued to sell shares until July 1921 when he was arrested again, brought to Lethbridge, and charged with fraud arising from more bouncing cheques. He then went on a hunger strike to protest jail conditions. The hunger strike was accompanied with a fair amount of publicity and brought forward more people—from Edmonton to Michigan—who remembered “Captain Janney”, earlier business dealings, unpaid bills and bad cheques. On Sept. 30, 1921, he was convicted of fraud and sentenced to two years in the Prince Albert Penitentiary.
By 1924, Janney was again being mentioned in the aviation press, reportedly flying in the U.S. and planning an air service in British Guyana. In 1927, he acquired a Canadian commercial pilot’s license—the first flying certificate issued him. That same year, he chartered Janney Transatlantic Flights Limited, “to purchase an aeroplane or aeroplanes and finance a flight or flights across the Atlantic or elsewhere.” This was to be financed with 1,600 shares of stock at $25 each. The venture was cancelled when two Canadian pilots vanished over the Atlantic the same month his company was created.
In July of 1929 Janney was still attempting to create a business and with four other men from Toronto incorporated a company under Dominion Charter called Janney Aircraft and Boats Ltd. In August the company was transferred completely to Janney to begin operation in Kingston. Land was leased in Pittsburgh township, machinery installed and work begun under Mr. MacQueen, Chief Engineer. Preferred and common stock certificates were issued but apparently only to those involved in establishing the company. There is no record of the company after 1930.
Janney died in Winnipeg on April 22, 1941, and is buried in Brookside Cemetery.