Robert Charles Dionne was born in Sarnia, Ontario, the second son of seven children of Raymond William and Golda Marie Dionne, of Oakwood Corners, Ontario. He enlisted in the Canadian Army on 19 August 1941 in London, Ontario declaring his civilian trade as a sailor working for the Canada Steamship Lines. He stated his training preference to be a motor mechanic and was assigned to the Royal Canadian Engineers.
Cecil Amos Bell was born in Brooke Township, Lampton County, Ontario, one of six children born to Franklin and Deboris Bell. He married Evelyn Elizabeth Payne Bell in March 1940 while in training and before going overseas. He enlisted in 11th Field Company in Sarnia, Ontario on 11 September 1939. He declared his trade as Mechanics Helper. He started his sapper training in Camp Petawawa, Ontario and was shipped to the UK in September 1940.
Clifford Hebner was born in Gilbert Plains, Manitoba, son of Frank and Minnie May Hebner and husband of Vera Hebner. He was second in a family of five boys and five girls. He attended school until Grade VIII and worked for a time in farming. He left Manitoba in 1928 and soon found work as a furnace man in a smelter in Trail, British Columbia where he worked for eight years. In 1937, he moved to Calgary and was a service station operator for Imperial Oil.
This is the fourth in a series of articles on the involvement of the Royal Canadian Engineers in the Gothic Line Battle and lists the names of those killed.
Lance Corporal Murdock Alexander MacDonald was born in Inverness NS, to John and Catherine MacDonald, the first of six sons. He left school at age 13 and worked cutting pulpwood every winter and on the family farm in Mabou, NS during the summer months. In 1935, he moved to Halet in northern Quebec and worked five years as a hard rock driller and shaft worker at the Goldfield Mine.
Sapper Lorne Robert McCaw was born in Timiskaming, Ontario to John and Anna McCaw, the oldest of six children in his family. He grew up in the north and worked primarily as a miner and plumber’s helper in South Porcupine, Ontario. He also did some prospecting and trapping. He served four years in the Algonquin Regiment and had attained the rank of corporal when he was discharged in 1935.
Leonard Seminoff was born in Toronto and raised in Scarborough, the oldest of a family that eventually grew to seven brothers and one sister. His mother, Elizabeth, and father James were Russian and had immigrated to Canada from Finland and Poland respectively.