Lance Corporal Gustave Lavoie

Baptized Joseph-Gustave-Joachim Lavoie. Son of Joseph Lavoie (deceased in 1904) and Marie-Luce Chamberland (deceased in 1909), of St-Philippe-de-Néri. He named a maternal uncle (Wenceslas Lebel, husband of Virginie Chamberland), of Ste-Hélène, Kamouraska, Québec, as his closest relative. He had declared to be born on June 28th, 1894 at the time of his enlistment.

Enlisted in the 189th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, he sailed for Great Britain on September 23, 1916, and arrived in Liverpool, England, on October 6. Upon his arrival, he was assigned to the 69th Battalion at Dibgate Camp in Shorncliffe. From October 11 to January 3, 1917, he underwent training to become a signalman. On the 4th, he was assigned to the 10th Reserve Battalion; on the 20th, to the 8th Battalion; on February 19, 1917, he was transferred to the 22nd Battalion; on March 7, he returned to the 10th Reserve Battalion until April 3, when he returned to the 22nd. On the 4th, he crossed the English Channel and set foot in France. On the 10th, he was on the front lines on the Vimy Ridge in Pas-de-Calais. From December 28, 1917, to September 14, 1918, he served with the Divisional Signal Company, a unit he had joined on January 4. On August 10, 1918, he was shot in the left leg during the Battle of Amiens. On September 14, he returned to the 22nd Battalion.

Repatriated with the 22nd Battalion and demobilized in Montréal on May 19, 1919, he died of heart failure two weeks later, on June 4, 1919, at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, Quebec, and his death was ruled attributable to military service. He was buried on the 9th in St-Philippe-de-Néri, Kamouraska, in the southwest section of the cemetery.