Sergeant James Leonard Townson went overseas in September 1942 with the 48th Highlanders of Canada. He first served in Italy as a “D-Day Dodger” and was later KIA during Operation CANNONSHOT, which included the liberation of Apeldoorn in the Netherlands.
He was killed on 13 April 1945, aged 25, just northeast of the town of Twello, two days after earning his Sergeant’s rank, and was the Platoon Sergeant for the Universal Carrier Platoon at the time of his death. Initially buried in the town of Wilp, he was later relocated to Holten Canadian War Cemetery.
He left behind his widow, Mrs. Bernice Townson, living on Alcorn Ave. in Toronto, and their two-and-a-half-year-old son, whom he never met.