Adopted 11 November 1995 on 82F/5.

Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office

Named to remember RCAF Pilot Officer Wilbur ("Wib") Boyd Bentz, J87378, of North Bend then Nelson; enlisted at Penticton in December 1941, killed in action 13 May 1944 over Belgium, age 24.

Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office

F/S Bentz was attached to 426 Thunderbird) Squadron, at Linton-on-Ouse, Yorkshire. He was on his 4th operation as pilot, and returning from a night raid on the railway yards in Louvain, Belgium, when his Halifax bomber was shot down by a German night fighter and crashed NW of Bruxelles, killing all 8 aboard. The bodies of Bentz and 2 other crew were never recovered, hence are commemorated at the Runneymede Memorial for missing airmen. Biography and photo provided by nephew. (File T.1.47)
See Legion Magazine, January/February 1998 for a description of the excavation of the crash site in September 1997, the identification of the remains of the missing airmen, and their burial at Geraardsbergen, Belgium, 10 November 1997.

Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office