Lovell, Lorne Alexander

On July 6, 1944, the Highland Light Infantry, Galt, attacked and took the small town of Buron in Normandy, France, and casualties were heavy. The following morning the unit moved into Caen. On the way, the vehicles were shelled heavily by the enemy, Pte. Lorne Alexander Lovell had been with the mortar platoon during the Buron battle and was with the platoon officer in his carrier operating the wireless set, on the move. Ahead, just inside the city limits, the road was very narrow due to bomb craters. The column was held up at a very bad time. Pte. Lovell and his officer took cover in shallow trenches in the field by the road, but a shell landed near the former wounding him seriously. He was evacuated to hospital but died on July 9. Thus reads the report of the last action in which Pte. Lovell took part, and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Alec Lovell, 50 Morley Avenue, Echo Place, also learned from his Signals Officer that their son, at his own request, had reverted from the rank of sergeant, earned in the holding unit in England, to that of private to go into field action. He was wounded earlier in June, but instead of being evacuated to England, asked to be returned to action. A big lad, 6 feet tall and weighing 210 pounds, he enlisted when he was just 16 years of age, going into the Highland Light Infantry directly from the classrooms of Brantford Collegiate Institute and Vocational School.

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