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In memory of:

Private Alfred Gouin

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Citation(s);

1939-1945 Star
Italy Star
Defence Medal
War Medal 1939-1945
Canadian Volunteer Service Medal

Military service

Service number: E/4468
Age: 22
Rank: Private
Force: Army
Unit/Regiment: Royal 22e Régiment, R.C.I.C.
Birth: March 21, 1921 Montréal, Québec
Enlistment: October 30, 1939 Montréal, Québec
Death: January 13, 1944 San Vito Sector, Italy

Burial/memorial information

MORO RIVER CANADIAN WAR CEMETERY
Grave reference: X. D. 2.
Additional information

Baptized Joseph Alfred Paul Gouin. Son of Alfred Gouin and Eva Labelle, of Verdun, Quebec. He had a child out of wedlock with Phyllis Mary Watts, Pete, of Reading, England, born on December 18, 1941.

Enlisted in the Royal 22nd Regiment, he became a very undisciplined soldier with several prison sentences. He sailed for Great Britain on May 11, 1940, and landed in Liverpool, England, on the 21st. Due to his detentions and numerous periods of hospitalization, he returned to his regiment on December 15, 1943. He left for Italy on a date not recorded in his military file. He was wounded in combat by shrapnel to the temple on January 13, 1944, in the San Vito sector and was evacuated. He died the same day and was temporarily buried in San Vito. Around June 9, 1944, his body was exhumed and reburied in the Moro River cemetery. 
 

Related media

Second World War (1939 – 1945)

In the Books of Remembrance

Commemorated on:

Page 319 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance.
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MORO RIVER CANADIAN WAR CEMETERY Italy

By the winter of 1943, the German armies in Italy were defending a line stretching from the Tyrrhenian Sea north of Naples, to the Adriatic Sea south of Ortona. The Allies prepared to break through this line to capture Rome. For its part, the 1st Canadian Infantry Division was to cross the Moro River and take Ortona. In January 1944 the Canadian Corps selected this site, intending that it would contain the graves of those who died during the Ortona battle and in the fighting in the weeks before and after it. Today, there are 1,615 graves in the cemetery, of which over 50 are unidentified and 1,375 are Canadian.

The Moro River Canadian War Cemetery lies in the locality of San Donato in the Commune of Ortona, Province of Chieti, and is sited on high ground near the sea just east of the main Adriatic coast road (SS16). The cemetery can be reached from Rome on the autostrada A25 (Rome-Pescara) by branching on the autostrada A14 and leaving it at Ortona. The approach road to the cemetery from the main road passes under an arch forming part of the little church of San Donato. The cemetery is permanently open and may be visited anytime.

For more information, visit Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

 

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