Service highlights
- Service number: A/59999
- Born: 13 June 1919, East Nissouri Township
- Moved to: St. Marys as a boy with his family
- Civilian work: Lathe hand at Maxwell’s
- Early service: Served with the 2nd (Reserve) Battalion of The Perth Regiment from August 1940 to July 1941
- Enlisted for overseas service: 6 April 1942 in London
- Overseas: Sailed 20 July 1942, arrived in England 30 July 1942
- Reinforcement and unit: Posted through 5 Canadian Infantry Reinforcement Unit and later 3 Canadian Infantry Reinforcement Unit, then posted 21 May 1943 to Highland Light Infantry of Canada with the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division
- Promotions and wounds: Promoted corporal 31 August 1944, wounded 10 October 1944 near Hoofdplaat, returned to battalion 25 October 1944, promoted Lance Sergeant 1 December 1944
- Killed: 3 March 1945 in Germany when the battalion was shelled while moving into position near Balberger Wald during preparations for operations against the Hochwald Forest
- Buried: Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery
- Remembered locally: Commemorated in St. Marys, including the World War II plaque on the south wall of St. Marys Town Hall and through the Perth Regiment Veterans Br.236 Banner program
A Life and Service Remembered
William Franklin Sager was born in East Nissouri Township on 13 June 1919 and came to St. Marys as a boy with his family. Before the war, his life looked like many young men in town, work first, responsibility early, learning a trade and showing up every day. He worked as a lathe hand at Maxwell’s, the kind of job that leaves your hands marked by the work and your days shaped by routine.
That steadiness carried into uniform. He followed his younger brother Roy into service and from August 1940 to July 1941 he served with the 2nd (Reserve) Battalion of the Perth Regiment. On 6 April 1942 he enlisted for overseas service in the Active Force at London. Training followed quickly, basic training at No. 10 Canadian Army Basic Training Centre in Kitchener and advanced training at Camp Borden through June and mid July 1942. By 20 July 1942 he was on his way overseas.
He arrived in England on 30 July 1942 and moved through the reinforcement system, first posted to the Perth Regiment Training Company within 5 Canadian Infantry Reinforcement Unit. On 1 February 1943 he transferred to 3 Canadian Infantry Reinforcement Unit, and on 21 May 1943 he was posted to the Highland Light Infantry of Canada, a unit of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division.
When his division landed in Normandy, William landed with them. He came ashore on D Day, 6 June 1944, and within weeks he was in one of the hardest early fights for the Canadians. On 8 July 1944 he was present at Buron, remembered for the cost paid there, with more than half the battalion killed or wounded. In August he was also part of the fighting tied to the Falaise Gap, a crucial closing of the net that came at a brutal price on the ground. Through that summer, his service was not a single moment, it was a long sequence of days that demanded everything a soldier had.
His responsibility grew with the campaign. He was promoted corporal on 31 August 1944. In October the battalion shifted into the fighting around the Scheldt Estuary, part of the push to open the approaches to Antwerp. On 10 October 1944, near Hoofdplaat, he received a minor shell wound to his left arm. He was evacuated that night to 22 Field Ambulance and transferred the next day to 12 Canadian General Hospital, where he recovered quickly enough to rejoin his battalion on 25 October.
Just over a month later, on 1 December 1944, he was promoted Lance Sergeant. It is easy to read that as a simple line in a record, but it also hints at trust, at being the sort of man others listened to when things were tense and uncertain. He carried that rank into the final winter of the war.
In February 1945, the Highland Light Infantry fought in the battle for the Reichswald in Germany. The following month the battalion was ordered to concentrate in the Balberger Wald east of Uedem, preparing for an attack on the Hochwald forest. While moving into position on 3 March 1945, the battalion was shelled and William was killed.
For the Sager family, the war did not take only one son. William’s brother Roy was killed the previous year in Normandy on 1 August 1944. Another brother, Robert, had already died in 1941 following surgery, still only seventeen. Those losses, spread across different years and different causes, still landed on the same family kitchen table, the same parents, the same siblings trying to make sense of what could not be fixed.
William is buried in the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery in the Netherlands. Back home, both Roy and William are commemorated together on the World War II plaque on the south wall of St. Marys Town Hall. Their names sit side by side in the place where their lives began, a lasting reminder that this town sent brothers to war and not all of them came back.
Major battles and operations
- Normandy landings, D Day, 6 June 1944
- Buron, 8 July 1944
- Falaise Gap fighting, August 1944
- Scheldt Estuary operations, October 1944
- Reichswald fighting, February 1945
- Killed during shelling near Balberger Wald, 3 March 1945
Learn More
https://www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/635553
https://canadiansatarms.ca/groesbeek-canadian-war-cemetery-r-s/
https://rcl236stmarys.ca/cenotaph/sager-pte-roy-e/
Local reference book entry: “A59999 Lance Sergeant W.F. Sager”, page 130