A/L/Sgt. William J. A. Mitchell, MM

William (Bill) Mitchell was born on 6th October 1916 in Peterborough, Ontario. Three months earlier, the Canadian army had shipped his father, William (Will) Mitchell, off to serve in Europe and it wasn't until his return in 1919 that Bill finally got to met his dad. His family moved to the Danforth Avenue area of Toronto in 1921 where Bill went to school, eventually becoming a licensed auto mechanic. In 1935, Bill and his dad opened Lona's Garage in Highland Creek, Ontario, a small village just east of Toronto, which operated successfully until his father was "invited" to join the army again in 1940.

At the start of his service during WWI, Will had been an instructor at West Sandling, England. While there, he requested a transfer to the front six different times and took a demotion in rank to do so. It took a year, but in May 1917 he was transferred to the 2nd Battalion and promoted to Lance Corporal. On 6th November 1917 Will was awarded the Military Medal for his bravery and distinguished service in the field. Three months later, due to poor eyesight, Will was again an instructor, this time at the Canadian Corp Company in France, where he served until being discharged. The Canadian Army "invited" him back in 1940 and throughout WWII he instructed at Camp Brantford and Camp Niagara. He held the rank of Company Sergeant-Major upon his discharge in 1946.

After his father enlisted, Bill ran the family business on his own until July of 1941, when he finally closed up shop and enlisted himself. For the first year of his service, Bill took a number of training courses and served in Nanaimo, Colwood, Otter Point, Petawawa, Calgary, Toronto and Sussex, an unusual number of transfers for any soldier. In July he was transferred to the Canadian 2nd Parachute Battalion and shipped to Fort William Henry Harrison, in Helena, Montana where he was invited to jump out of a plane, which he did - once. Bill suggested to the army that he would much rather fix planes than jump out of them, which resulted in him being quickly shipped back to Ottawa. In December of 1942, Bill was shipped out to England where he was again attached to different Battalions and again took more training, eventually upgrading his qualifications to Driver I/C Class I and Motor Mechanic Group B. On 3rd July 1944 he arrived in France as a member of the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders. On 2nd September 1944, he joined the South Saskatchewan Regiment at the front as one of their Motor Mechanics. We believe that shortly after joining the SSR, he requested that he become, as he called it, "a regular soldier". His request must have been met with approval as shortly afterwards he was participating in patrols.

Two weeks after joining the SSR, on September 16th, Bill was promoted to Acting Corporal. The following day, while on patrol at Bray Dunes Plage with C Company, the patrol was stopped by 4 enemy machine gun posts which already had a D Company patrol pinned down. With the aid of smoke, both Companies were able to withdraw, but not before Bill single-handedly took out one of the posts, an action for which he was awarded the Military Medal, the citation for which is linked to below.

On 26th September, Bill was promoted to Acting Lance Sergeant and began leading his own patrols. On 3rd October, Bill was killed in action in Brecht, Belgium. The army recorded his death as "Unclassified".

For the past few years I have been researching Bill's life, trying to learn more about him and trying to discover who he was. I have only been able to do this through official records as all his mementos and personal papers have disappeared over time. I have also been trying to pinpoint the place of his death, as well as the circumstances under which he was killed. I have a family story of his death to start with, but I have yet been able to prove or disprove it, and I am not comfortable giving him credit for something that he possibly didn't do, so to date, his death will remain unclassified.

You can probably tell from this post that I am very proud of the contribution my uncle made to the Canadian war effort as a member of the South Saskatchewan Regiment. I am, after all, his namesake. If you have any further information about William J. A. Mitchell, from during his service or before, I would greatly appreciate hearing from you. I can be contacted at mitchell@liquiddesigns.ca.