Danish WW2 Pilots

Niels Ebbesen Kloppenborg

(1907 - 1992)

Niels Ebbesen Kloppenborg emigrated to Canada in 1928, and served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during the war.

Niels Ebbesen Kloppenborg was born in Sinding in Denmark in 25 April 1907. He was the fourth son of Johannes Sigismund Kloppenborg, the proprietor of the estate Sindinggaard from 1902-1911, and his wife Anna (née Damkjær).[1] The family moved from Sinding to Bække, where the family lived though his youth.[2]

In 1928, Kloppenborg emigrated to Canada arriving from Liverpool in St John, Newfoundland on-board SS Monclare on 25 March 1928.[3] He was employed at the Dominion Experimental Station in Lethbridge from 1934 to 1941, when he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force.[4] Among other duties he served as the unofficial photographer. The Experimental Station developed methods for farming with the special conditions in this part of Canada. A number of employees at the station volunteered for the Canadian armed forces, including Kloppenborg.[5]

Kloppenborg was naturalised on 28 November 1934,[6] and he was married to Nini Seargeant on 25 December 1941.[7] He was, thus, not a Danish national at the time of enlistment.

Royal Canadian Air Force

Kloppenborg enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1941, and he was posted overseas in April 1942.[8] He served as a a photographic interpreter within the field of radar.[9] He received a commission in 1945 at which point he served in the Administrative Branch.[10] He was repatriated to Canada in late 1945.[11]

Endnotes

[1] DNA: Parish register, Sinding Parish.

[2] DNA: Census 1911, 1916, 1921, 1925.

[3] LAC: Passenger Lists and Border Entries, 1925-1935.

[4] Ancestry: U.S., Border Crossings from Canada to U.S., 1895-1960.

[5] {Johnston and Canada., 1977, #1610}

[6] Canada Gazette, 30 January 1935 (certificate 122179 A).

[7] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/95746357 (accessed on 1 April 2019).

[8] Ancestry: Lethbridge Herald, 13 April 1942, p. 8.

[9] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/95746357 (accessed on 1 April 2019).

[10] Canada Gazette, 20 October 1945.

[11] Ancestry: Lethbridge Herald, 14 November 1945, p. 13.