This street is named in memory of Private Cecil Daniel McNeil.
Cecil Daniel McNeil was born in London ON and resided on Richmond Street, with his wife, before joining the military in 1942. Enlisting in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps (RCAMC), he was assigned to the newly formed No. 10 Canadian General Hospital, a 1200 bed facility located in Leavesden next to Watford, England. This unit remained in the UK until the D-Day invasion.
The initial plan had the general hospitals being transported to France soon after the invasion however crowding in the bridgehead delayed the move of these hospitals almost a month. By 26 July, No. 10 Canadian General Hospital was established and operational in Bayeux, France. They remained there until October 1944 when No. 10 Canadian General Hospital was moved from Bayeux to Turnhout, Belgium, about 6km from the Dutch border. The hospital operated from this location until VE Day (8 May 1945) and remained open in Turnhout until it was disbanded in September.
It was during the latter period that Private McNeil died on 9 August 1945, when he drowned in an area previously flooded by the retreating German army. He is buried at the Holten Canadian War Cemetery, Netherlands.
