Raymond Collishaw was born at Nanaimo, British Columbia, on 22nd November 1893. At the age of fifteen he found work with the Canadian Fisheries Protection Services. By 1915 he had worked his way up from cabin boy to first officer.

In January 1916, Collishaw joined the Royal Naval Air Service and over the next two years had sixty victories. During the First World War he won the Distinguished Service Cross and the Distinguished Service Order.

At the end of the war he remained in the Royal Air Force and eventually reached the rank of Air Vice Marshall.

Raymond Collishaw died on 28th September 1976.