Master Warrant Officer Raoul (Ray) Fournier – Royal Canadian Army Service Corps
In response to Canada’s call for men to enrol in the Canadian Armed Forces to support the UK in their war efforts, Raoul (Ray) Fournier, enrolled on the 28th of August 1941. By April of 1942, he had arrived in the UK, leaving behind his wife and his 8-month-old daughter. He would not see his wife or new daughter for another 4 years. In July 1944, after spending 2 years training in the UK with the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division, they were shipped to Normandy to join the Canadians who had landed at Juno Beach on the 6th of June 1944. By this time, he had remustered from Bren Gunner to Army Service Corps cook, due to a shortage of cooks. After the breakout from the Normandy beaches, the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division played a significant role in the retaking of the Channel Ports, the Battle of the Scheldt, and the Liberation of the Netherlands.After the war, Ray returned to civilian life but soon realized that he missed the camaraderie and structured military life, so he re-enlisted. He went on to serve 27 years in the Canadian Armed Forces, seeing service again in Europe (Germany 1957-59) with the Allied Forces, as well as serving in the Korean War and peacekeeping duties in Cyprus. He retired as a Master Warrant Office in 1972 and then went on to serve in the Canadian Corps of Commissionaires for almost 20 years.