Sager, Private Roy Edgar

Service highlights

  • Service number: A11740
  • Born: 6 August 1921, Wellburn
  • Moved to: St. Marys as a child
  • Education: Completed Grade 9 at St. Marys Collegiate
  • Civilian work: Worked for the De Long and Eye Company on Emily Street in St. Marys
  • Enlisted: 13 June 1940, at Stratford, with The Perth Regiment
  • Overseas: Sailed to England in October 1941 and trained with the regiment for the next two years
  • Qualification: Qualified as an assault pioneer
  • Reinforcement stream: Transferred to 3 Canadian Infantry Reinforcement Unit after leaving hospital
  • Postings: Canadian Infantry Reinforcement Unit, Earmarked as potential reinforcement for Royal Winnipeg Rifles serving with the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division in England
  • Later postings: Posted in France in late July 1944 and redirected through several units, including The Calgary Highlanders and Highland Light Infantry of Canada
  • Final duty: Posted to Headquarters, First Canadian Army, likely with its Defence Company, arriving about 29 July 1944
  • Missing and killed: Reported missing in action 1 August 1944, later confirmed killed in action after his body was found near the end of August 1944
  • Burial: Bretteville-sur-Laize 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

Roy Edgar Sager was born on 6 August 1921 in Wellburn and came to St. Marys as a boy. His schooling took him through Grade 9 at St. Marys Collegiate, and like many young men of his generation he moved quickly into working life. He found employment with the De Long and Eye Company on Emily Street, a steady job in town before the war pulled so many lives onto a different track.

Roy enlisted on 13 June 1940 in Stratford with the Perth Regiment, just a few months before his older brother William enlisted with the same regiment. In October 1941 he sailed to England and spent the next two years training with the regiment. Over time he qualified as an assault pioneer, a role that speaks to difficult, close work under pressure, the kind of training that asked for stamina and calm.

In the fall of 1943 the Perth Regiment moved toward the next stage of its war, but Roy’s path bent sharply. On 19 October 1943 he was accidentally injured and admitted to 13 Canadian General Hospital in England. He did not go on to Italy with the regiment that month. After his discharge from hospital, he was transferred into the reinforcement system, moving through the machinery that tried to get trained men to the places where they were needed most.

On 7 April 1944 Roy was earmarked as a potential reinforcement for the Royal Winnipeg Rifles with the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division in England. Then, in late July 1944, while he was in a reinforcement unit in France, he was posted and reposted in quick succession. On 27 July he was posted to the Calgary Highlanders, that posting was cancelled the next day, and he was redirected toward the Highland Light Infantry of Canada. Instead of joining that battalion, he was posted to Headquarters of the First Canadian Army, likely with its Defence Company. He arrived at headquarters around 29 July 1944.

Only three days later, on 1 August 1944, Roy was reported missing in action. His body was found near the end of August, and his status was amended to killed in action. He was buried at Bretteville-sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery in Normandy.

Roy’s story carries both the steady thread of service and the sudden turns that families could never predict: training, injury, recovery, reassignment, and then loss that came fast. He also managed, in the middle of it all, to build a piece of home overseas. He married Elsie Mabel Clayton in England, and he left behind parents and siblings who had already known grief, including the earlier death of his brother Robert in 1941. The photograph of Roy and his brother William in uniform captures something that records alone cannot, two brothers with the same family name, caught in the same war, both to suffer the same fate.

Major battles and operations

  • Overseas service in England, October 1941 to 1944
  • Reinforcement stream in Britain and France, 1944
  • Normandy, posted to Headquarters First Canadian Army, late July 1944
  • Reported missing 1 August 1944, later confirmed killed in action after recovery near the end of August 1944

Learn More

https://veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/640374
https://rcl236stmarys.ca/cenotaph/sager-lance-sgt-william-f/
The Fallen, Richard Holt, Private RE Sager, Pg 130