Other Canadians, including flamboyant pilot Billy Bishop, have received more medals, but the hero who received the most decorations for gallantry before the enemy (as in U.S. military tradition), is Lieutenant Colonel William Barker. In fact, in his book "Barker VC, William Barker, Canada's Most Decorated War Hero," author Wayne Ralph describes Barker as "the most decorated hero not just of the First World War but of all our wars."

Gallantry awards won by the prairie farmer's son from Dauphin, Manitoba, are: The Victoria Cross; the Distinguished Service Order and Bar; the Military Cross and Two Bars; the French Croix-de-Guerre; two Italian Silver Medals for Valour, plus three Mentions-in- Despatches. The Canadian Daily Record of the Overseas Military Forces of Canada once wrote that Barker "the third Canadian airman to win the VC...holds the record among Canadians for fighting decorations won during the war."

In all, Barker was recognized 12 times for gallantry while flying with Britain's Royal Flying Corps and later with the Royal Air Force. This number of awards probably makes him the most decorated military hero in what was the British Empire.

Barker developed a love for flying while watching demonstration flights at industrial exhibitions in Winnipeg between 1910 and 1914. He won his Victoria Cross on Oct. 27, 1918 for singlehandedly taking on between 15 and 30 German flyers in Fokker D.VII scout planes while piloting a Sopwith Snipe over the Mormal Forest in France. He was credited with destroying four enemy machines but was shot down in the battle and almost died. In total, he had victories over 50 enemy aircraft during his air force career, 46 while piloting the same aircraft, Sopwith Camel B6313.

At reunions long after the war, Barker's former air force pals remembered him as a "god-like, larger than life warrior," writes Ralph. Ottawa historian Fred Gaffen, head of publishing at the Canadian War Museum, describes Barker as a "hero and an idol...a daring type of guy."

Canadian air ace Bishop, a Lieutenant Colonel who was born in Owen Sound, Ont., was credited with 72 victories and was awarded eight gallantry awards, plus two Mentions-in-Despatches, including the Victoria Cross for his single-handed attack on a German airfield on June 2, 1917. At the end of World War 1, Barker had logged more than 900 flying hours, Bishop about 400. Bishop won another award, the Commander of the Bath, in World War II but it was for his contributions to the war effort, not for gallantry.

After the war, Barker and Bishop ran an aircraft company in Toronto that had financial difficulties and folded in 1922. Barker joined the Canadian Air Force as wing commander in 1922 and was acting director of the Royal Canadian Air Force when it was born on April 1, 1924. He stayed with the RCAF until 1926, during which time he was one of those who were instrumental in having parachutes introduced to both the RCAF and the RAF.

In 1926, with his ambition to head the RCAF stalled, and plagued by post traumatic stress disorder and physical pain from his combat wounds, he turned to alcohol. He served briefly as president of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team, likely in 1927-28, and later was employed as vice-president and general manager of Fairchild Aircraft Ltd.

He died on March 12, 1930, at age 35, in a peacetime air crash at Rockcliffe, Royal Canadian Air Force Ottawa Air Station, in Ottawa, Ont. The tragedy occurred while Barker was demonstrating an open cockpit biplane known as the Fairchild KR-21. Newspaper reports said his state funeral in Toronto on March 15, 1930, was attended by 50,000 people and described it as the largest to date in the city's history.