Ishar Singh Banns, 1930. Photo: ‘100 Year Journey’ by Mehfil Magazine.

By Hammad Abdullah, MONOVA’s New Voices Volunteer Group

On the May Day Festival of 1930, over 6,000 people gathered in Mahon Park in North Vancouver to witness one of “the most thrilling outdoor spectacles ever staged on the North Shore.” An East Indian/Punjabi/Sikh man, Ishar Singh Banns, was about to leap from the sky.

In 1945, Ishar Singh Banns was interviewed and featured by The Wallace Shipbuilder. CLICK TO ENLARGE.

Looking down at the crowd from his airplane, Ishar felt scared. Parachute jumping was still a novel and dangerous air feat in the 1930s. This “daring leap” could cost him his life. But he was also determined to bring his “East Indian countrymen into limelight”, to prove that they too “could do anything Americans and Canadians could do”, and that they too “were worthy to become fully recognized Canadian and American citizens.”

Finally, the scared and determined Ishar jumped from a height of over 900 meters. But he did not land in front of the excited crowd as initially planned. Realizing how crowded the park was, he started looking for another “softest spot” while flying in the air and landed half a mile from Mahon Park, in some tall trees on “the corner of View and Twenty-Third street.”

Half an hour later, he was enjoying “the calm of the home of his relatives on Esplanade.”

Engine Fitter In The Burrard Dry Dock

More than a decade later, Ishar Singh returned back to North Vancouver, this time to work in the Burrard Dry Dock as an Engine Fitter’s helper.

In 1945, he was interviewed and featured by the Wallace Shipbuilder, a monthly newsletter published by the Burrard Dry Dock. Reflecting back on his 15-year old, May-day parachute jump, Ishar Singh recounted how he had “landed up perched like a bird in the treetops of Capilano Canyon.”

The back (left) and front cover (right) of the Wallace Shipbuilder, April 1945. NVMA Series 161

In the same interview, he also talked about his other air adventures, three similar parachute jumps and two solo airplane travels that he had undertaken across North America during the 1930s.

READ: Wallace Shipbuilder, April 1945

The Man They Called “Odaroo”

His unbounded passion for flying had earned him the nickname of “Odaroo”, a Punjabi word which means “the one who can fly.” But it is not clear if he was still flying by the time he was interviewed in 1945. In his own words, it was an expensive passion to pursue which had kept him “broke year after year.”

Along with his wife, Ida Singh Banns, Ishar Singh also actively advocated for equal rights and welfare of his community and became the president of the Canadian Sikh Welfare organization in 1954.

Our Canadian Sikh/Punjabi aviator, our “Odaroo” died in Vancouver in 1969.

Citations

• “Parachute Jump Big Feature of May Day festival on May 24,” North Shore Press, May 27, 1930.
• “The Flying Fitter,” Wallace Shipbuilder, April 1945, page 5.
• 100 Years Journey, produced and compiled by Rana and Rupa Vig.