Peter Donald Clements was born to Lithuanian immigrants in Lachine, QC. His father was killed in the Great War and Peter had little guidance as a boy. An army psychological assessement noted that he had been a “wanderer” since the age of ten and was constantly in and out of trouble while growing up.
Peter was living in Nipissing, ON with his wife, Mrytle and three children, when he travelled to North Bay on 21 October 1941, to enlist in the Royal Canadian Engineers. He trained in Canada and was posted to the 14th Field Company. In the UK, Sapper Clements qualified as a Group C Pioneer.
Peter was later posted to the 12th Field Company in October 1943 and arrived in Italy a month later while the company was starting a series of river crossing operations including the Sangro and Moro Rivers. Afterwards followed a relatively slow period over the winter along the Bernhard Line, anchored on the town of Ortona in at the eastern end. By summer of 1944, he would have seen action at Cassino and through the Liri Valley before advancing to Florence in July and August and then moving to the other side of Italy and prepared to assault the Gothic Line.
Sapper Peter Clements was killed in action on 23 August 1944 as the Canadian Corps drew up to the Metauro River with the sappers in the lead. The Chaplain of the 12th Light Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment found his body. He had two sons and a daughter when he was killed. He is buried in the Ancona Cemetery.