Personal Life
Banting developed an interest in painting beginning around 1921 while he was in London, Ontario. He became friends with Group of Seven artists A.Y. Jackson and Lawren Harris, sharing their love of the rugged Canadian landscape. In 1927 he made a sketching trip with Jackson to the St. Lawrence in Quebec. Later that year they traveled to RCMP outposts in the Arctic on the Canadian Government supply ship Beothic. The sketches, done both in oils on birch panels and in pen and ink, were named after the places he visited: Craig Harbour, Ellesmere Island; Pond Inlet, Baylot Island; Eskimo tents at Etach; others were untitled. Jackson and Banting also made painting expeditions to Great Slave Lake, Walsh Lake (Northwest Territories), Georgian Bay, French River and the Sudbury District.
Banting married twice. His first marriage was to Marion Robertson in 1924; they had one child, William (b. 1928). They divorced in 1932 and Banting married Henrietta Ball in 1937.
In 1938, Banting's interest in aviation medicine resulted in his participation with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in research concerning the physiological problems encountered by pilots operating high-altitude combat aircraft. Banting headed the RCAF's Number 1 Clinical Investigation Unit (CIU), which was housed in a secret facility on the grounds of the former Eglinton Hunt Club in Toronto.
In February 1941, Banting died of wounds and exposure following a Lockheed L-14 Super Electra/Hudson crash in Newfoundland. He was en route to England to conduct operational tests on the Franks flying suit developed by his colleague Wilbur Franks.
Banting and his wife are buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto.
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