Born in Tweed Ontario on September 7th 1924. He began to work at a general store at an early age.
At 19 he travelled to Kingston Ontario to enlist in the RCAF. There was always a period of time between Enlistment and being called up for duty. Not being a stranger to hard work McTaggart used this time to travel out west to Saskatchewan to work during the harvesting season.

In September he was called up for duty and returned to Ontario. He had been selected for Gunnery training. His training began at No. 3 Bombing and Gunnery School at Mount Pleasnet located in Prince Edward Island on Canada's East coast.
Further Gunnery training was at No. 7 B & G at Portage La Prairie. During this training time he met his future wife.

In June of 1944 he embarked from Halifax to Britain. He became the tail gunner for F/L Wickham at the Operational Training Unit. The hand picked crew then moved on after completion of the OTU course to the HCU. Heavy Conversion Unit training with the crew continued to fine tune their skills and team work. While with HCU he took part along with his crew on a "windows" op. dropping foil strips to confuse enemy radar while the main bomber stream headed for their target.

He then was posted to 419 Squadron in April of 1945 and completed three operations with his crew. During his last operation he flew on 419 Squadron's veteran Lancaster "X-Terminator" which had flown over 80 sorties.
The operation was marred by the loss of a number of Lancasters due to mid air collisions. "X-Terminator" although slowed by old age returned as did all other 419 aircraft. F/S McTaggart and the crew were the last 419 aircraft to return. Marking the end of the air war for the squadron.

Before the operation began there was a photo session with many top RCAF brass who came for the occasion of the last operation of 419 and X-Terminator. F/S Don McTaggart and his pilot F/L Wickham took part in one of the photos which has become well known to 419 veterans.


In June of 1945 McTaggart along with the Wickham crew plus two ground crew passengers arrived back in Canada. 419 Squadron with selected crews flew home the Lancaster's which had made the squadron famous. It was long flight from Middleton St. George to the Azores to Gander and finally Yarmouth.

By September of 1945 the whole squadron was disbanded. With war in Europe and the Pacific over peace returned to the world. For former F/S Don McTaggart civilian life included marriage to the lady he met during training and completion of his education at Belleville Business School. He worked at MacDonald-Douglas aircraft in Malton Ontario as a Foreman. Then returned to Belleville in 1989.

On May 28th 2021 Mr. McTaggart passed away in Belleville Ontario.