Cpl Joseph Francis Lavigne, 16th Fd Coy

Cpl Joseph Francis Lavigne's Headstone in Brookwood Cemerery, Surrey, England
Background 

Joseph Francis Lavigne was born in Saint John, New Brunswick. In 1927, four years after his father died, he re-located with his mother, brothers and sisters Montreal in 1927. He had left school when he was 12 years old, having completed Grade 7. Working at various jobs in Montreal and the Eastern Townships, he had been employed as a farmer worker, a mechanics helper and a grocery store clerk.

He was working with the Town of Hampstead, Quebec as a labourer when he enrolled on 8 July 1940 in the 16th Field Company, Royal Canadian Engineers in Montreal. (1)(2) The unit was desperately short of officers and although they were mobilised in May, they only started recruiting on Dominion Day, 1 July 1941. The whole month was spent recruiting with the new recruits sent home to wait for further instructions or kept on playing casual sports. 

On 1 August, the company boarded buses and travelled to the Farnham Military Camp, east of Montreal, where they spent a week under canvas and drawing personal clothing and equipment. On 8 August, they travelled from Montreal to the Debert Military Camp in Nova Scotia by train. For the next four months, they worked with the 6th Field Company which had just arrived from Vancouver, and the 18th Field Company from Hamilton, Ontario who had been there since June, building a permanent campsite in what would become the 3rd Canadian Infantry Divisional Engineer's main training base before deploying to the United Kingdom. They shared the camp with troops of the 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade. Their work included erecting hutted accommodation, building roads and laying our water and sewage systems, all with very little heavy equipment or motor transport.  Basic accommodations were completed by the time the snow started to fall in November and the sewer system went on line on 30 November 1941. 

Camp construction continued over the next few months, but more time was given for weapons training, map reading, field craft, anti-tank training, field fortifications and some even skiing. It was only in May that any serious attention started being paid to engineer training. Selected personnel started taking specialist training in demolitions, bridging, field works, motor transport and wireless signalling. That was all cut short at the end of the month when embarkation orders arrived at the camp. The next few weeks in June were spent packing, building creates, receiving more equipment, practising weapons drills, checking and repairing kit and taking embarkation leave. They left Debert by train on 18 November and boarded their ship that evening. Joining them, were 50 new recruits from A5 Engineer Training Centre in Camp Petawawa.  The ship left Halifax on 21 June and arrived in Greenock, Scotland on 30 June.

They took up residence near Aldershot in southern England. He was already classified as a Pioneer, the basic trade for soldiers in field companies, and continued his training in England. He later qualified as a Carpenter, Class ‘C’. Along the way, he took a number of specialty courses over the next three years, wireless operator, and bomb disposal. After four months in an acting position, he was appointed Lance Corporal in March 1942 and Corporal in April 1943. The unit was involved in many exercises including combined operations training in Scotland, bridging, rafting, mine warfare and demolition, waterproofing - all in preparation for an eventual assault on Europe.

The 16th Field Company landed on Juno Beach at St-Aubin-sur-Mare on 6 June 1944. One hundred yards offshore, the landing craft carrying Cpl Lavigne hit a mine. He was killed and others on the craft wounded.(3) The boat was able to come within 10 yards of the shore and most of the men were able to swim or wade to shore. CSM Howes twice swam out to the landing craft to bring stranded sappers to the shore. For this, he was awarded the Military Medal. Joseph’s body was later recovered from the sea and brought back to England for burial. He is resting in Brookwood Military Cemetery, in Woking, Surrey, England.

Notes:

  1. At the time of his enlistment, his brother, D17024 Spr Arthur Lavigne was serving in the 2nd Bn, RCE in England. Arthur returned home safely after the war.
  2. Although the records are not clear, Mrs Helen (or Helene) Lavigne had another son, Pte Joseph Edward Lavigne who was killed on 18 February 1944 near Ravena, Italy while serving with the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada.
  3. Cpl Lavigne's headstone at Brookwood lists his date of death as 8 June 1944. This date is also recorded in the Book of Remembrance.  However, the War Diary of the 16th Field Company states he was killed on D-Day as described.  Further, correspondence in his personal file reporting his death to his mother in Montreal and in the various accompanying casualty reports lists 6 June 1944 as the day he was killed.  This confusion may have arisen from a communications gap between the units in action, and the various British authorities who recovered his body from the sea. 

…. Based on Research conducted by the CMEA..

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