Healy, Private William Francis

Source: Veteran’s Banner Placement List 2025

Service highlights

  • Service Number: A64169
  • Born 19 September 1922 in Logan Township, moved to St. Marys as a boy
  • Finished Grade 8 at Holy Name School in 1936
  • Worked as a farm labourer for five years, then joined the Charles Hart Bakery in 1941
  • Militiaman with the 2nd (Reserve) Battalion of the Perth Regiment, April to July 1941
  • Enlisted in the Canadian Active Service Force at London on 12 July 1941 as a cook in the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps
  • Sailed for England on 12 March 1943, posted to the Base Ordnance Workshop at Bordon
  • Posted on 24 August 1943 to the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade Workshop, serving in Italy and in Northwest Europe
  • Transferred in Italy from RC Ordnance to the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps during a cooks reclassification
  • Suffered a head injury in 1943, later hospitalised in Netherlands and repatriated to Canada in 1946
  • Died 18 January 1947, later ruled service related
  • Buried in St. Marys Cemetery, grave maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
  • Commemorated on the plaque on the south wall of St. Marys Town Hall
  • Honoured by the Healy family through the St. Marys Legion banner program

A Life and Service Remembered

William Francis Healy’s early life reads like a snapshot of small town responsibility. He finished school after Grade 8 and went straight into work, first as a farm labourer and later at the Charles Hart Bakery. He also spent time as a militiaman with the Perth Regiment’s reserve battalion in 1941, a sign that service was already part of his world before he formally enlisted.

When he joined up in July 1941, he enlisted as a cook with the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps. That role might sound ordinary on paper, but it meant keeping people going through long stretches of training, movement, and uncertainty. He served first in Canada, at the Central Mechanical Depot in London and at Camp Borden then sailed overseas in 1943 and was posted into workshop and support units. In Italy, an administrative shuffle moved cooks, including William, into the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps. The book notes it did not change what he did day to day. He simply put on a new cap badge and carried on.

His war did not end cleanly. After a head injury in 1943, William’s health steadily worsened, with progressive weakness and failing vision. By 1945 he was hospitalised overseas, then transferred through hospitals in England before being brought home to Canada in January 1946. Even then, he only managed a few brief visits back to St. Marys. He died in January 1947, and later that year his death was officially ruled related to his military service. He rests in St. Marys Cemetery, and his name remains present in the community through the Town Hall memorial plaque and the family’s banner tribute.

Major battles and operations

  • Second World War service support in Canada, including ordnance and mechanical depot duties
  • Italian Campaign, service with a Canadian infantry brigade workshop in a support role
  • Northwest Europe Campaign, continued service support role
  • Overseas hospitalisation and medical transfers (Netherlands and England), followed by repatriation to Canada in 1946

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