Private Jean Baptiste Lavoie

Baptized Joseph Jean Baptiste Lavoie. Son of François Xavier Lavoie and Claudia Tremblay, of Rivière-du-Loup, Québec.

Enlisted in Company A of the Royal 22nd Regiment, he sailed for Great Britain on May 11, 1940, and arrived in Liverpool, England, on the 21st. He was very undisciplined and was frequently placed in detention for unauthorized absences. On June 16, 1943, he set sail again with Force M to take part in Operation Husky, the Allied landing in Sicily. He landed on the beaches of Pachino on July 10. On August 1, he was hospitalized for neuropsychiatric disorders following the explosion of a shell near him. On September 3, 1943, he set foot on the Italian mainland at Reggio di Calabria. He was court-martialed on several occasions. On July 25, 1945, he returned to England, and on March 10, 1946, he was repatriated to Canada. He was demobilized on April 24 of that year in Quebec City. He died on September 7, 1947, at the military hospital in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, of bilateral ulcerative pulmonary tuberculosis with cavities, a death related to his military service.