Owen sound was named after Admiral Fitzwilliam Owen, who undertook the first Admiralty Survey of Lake Ontario and Georgian Bay in 1814-1816. Surveys of Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Superior were done in 1817-1825. A famous aviator was also associated with the town.
Billy Bishop, famed WWI flying ace accredited with 72 air combat victories. Although the German ace Manfred von Richthofen had more victories, 80, he did not survive the war. Richthofen was shot down by another Canadian pilot in 1918, Wilfrid May of Manitoba. Bishop won a Victoria Cross and became an Air Marshal shortly after the outbreak of WWII. His childhood home in Owen Sound is now a national historic site and a museum.
The Tom Thompson Memorial Gallery, just a few blocks away from the Billy Bishop Museum, commemorates the landscape artist who grew up in the area. Two other Victoria Cross recipients were also from Owen Sound. Small town, big ambitions.
