Community activist.
Born at Selkirk on 26 July 1925 to Amy Matilda Perry (1896-1998) and Lancelot Cyril “Lanty” Burch (1885-1966), he was the second-youngest in a blended family of seven children. The Burches lived in Winnipeg, and after struggling through the Great Depression, he graduated from high school during the first years of the Second World War.
Soon thereafter he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force, where he took navigator and bombardier training at bases in western Canada. The war ended before he was deployed, but he nevertheless appreciated the experiences he had had in the Air Force and the friends he made. He was a member of the Wartime Pilots and Observers Association, and was instrumental in the establishment in 1999 of the Garden of Memories at the Air Force Heritage Museum and Air Park at Winnipeg. The project is a memorial to members of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan and especially Manitoba’s involvement in it.
In 1948, he married Millicent Elizabeth Dipple (1923-2022), and they went on to have three children. He worked for the Winnipeg Free Press for 42 years, finishing his career in the advertising department. In his leisure time and then in retirement, he enjoyed camping trips, hunting and fishing, and was active in golf and curling. He was also a woodworker and handyman.
He died at Winnipeg on 27 April 2012 and was buried in the Chapel Lawn Memorial Gardens.
Birth registration [Wiloliam Cyril Burch], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 9 May 2012.
“William Cyril ‘Bill’ Burch, JDs Family Tree, Ancestry.
William Cyril Burch, FindAGrave.
This page was prepared by Lois Braun.
Page revised: 23 January 2026
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