Corporal Gabriel Brousseau

Baptised Joseph Jean Gabriel Ange Brousseau. Son of Roland Brousseau and Ernestine Lagrange of Québec, Québec. Roland was conscripted into the army and enlisted on 15 July 1918 in the 3rd Battalion Depot of the 2nd Québec Regiment. In England, he was posted to the 10th Reserve Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Repatriated without having seen action, he returned to Canada on 2 July 1919 and was demobilized. Brother of Private Armand Brousseau, regimental number D-36560, of the Régiment de Trois-Rivières. He survived the Second World War.

Enlisted on 17 June 1942 with the Fusiliers du Saint-Laurent in Québec, Québec, regimental number E-57849, he was sent on 8 September 1942 to the territorial defence at Mulgrave, Gaspé, Québec, returning to the Fusiliers du Saint-Laurent on 19 December the following year. On 14 February 1943, he was posted to the 24th Regiment in Susses and on the 15th was transferred to the 1st Régiment des Voltigeurs de Québec in Québec. He left for England on 21 July 1943, arriving on the 28th. On 12 September, he left for Italy and was transferred to the Royal 22e Régiment on the 13th. On 14 December, he went to the front line and took part in the fighting at Ortona. He was killed in action on 19 May 1944 during an assault against the Hitler Line in the Liri Valley. He was buried there before being exhumed and reburied in Cassino cemetery, Italy.