Military service
Burial/memorial information
Baptisé Joseph Léopold Giroux, il a servi sous le nom de Léo Giroux. Fils de Joseph Giroux et de Marie Anne Labbé dit Gosselin of Sawyerville, Province of Quebec.
On January 1, 1941, under the National Resources Mobilization Act of 1940, he enlisted in the Canadian Active Militia in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, with the Régiment de la Chaudière, serial number E-519731. He was discharged from the army on February 7 after a thirty-day training session.
On May 1, 1941, he enlisted in the Canadian Active Army with the Régiment de la Chaudière, service number E-10515. He sailed for Great Britain on July 20 and arrived in Gourock, Scotland, on the 30th. From October 18 to December 4, he served with the 1st Canadian Construction Company of the Royal Canadian Engineers. On the 18th, he returned to his regiment. He was a very undisciplined soldier.
On February 18, 1944, he was assigned to the Mediterranean theater of operations with Force M and on the 19th, he was transferred to the Royal 22nd Regiment. He landed in Italy on March 3. He was seriously wounded in action on April 23, 1944, in the Lanciano sector of Chieti. He died of his wounds on the 30th. He was buried on May 1 in the Canadian war cemetery Arquabella in Ortona, grave number 7. On July 8, he was exhumed and reburied in the Moro River cemetery near Ortona. He had served 1,178 days, including 1,015 days overseas.
In the Books of Remembrance
Commemorated on:
Page 316 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance.
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MORO RIVER CANADIAN WAR CEMETERY Italy
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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