Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Canadian Memorial Cross awarded in remembrance of Private R. P. Bissonnette, 50th (Calgary) Battalion, who died of wounds on 19 November 1916

Canadian Memorial Cross, G.V.R., the reverse officially inscribed, ‘219550 Pte. R. P. Bissonnette’, with brooch bar ‘Silver Cross Life Member Women of Canada’, nearly extremely fine £100-150

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Fine Collection of Awards to the Canadian Forces.

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Roy Patterson Bissonnette was born in Napanee, Ontario, on 15 February 1894. A Bank Clerk by occupation, he enlisted into the 80th Battalion at Barriefield, Ontario in October 1915. Subsequently transferred to the 50th Battalion, he died of wounds on 19 November 1916, an official report stating:

‘This soldier was acting as a stretcher-bearer, during the attack on 18 November 1916, when he was severely wounded in the neck by enemy shrapnel. He was taken to the dressing station and from there evacuated to No. 49 Casualty Clearing Station where he succumbed to his wounds the following day’.

Bissonnette was buried in the Contay British Cemetery on the Somme, France. He was the son of J. D. Bissonnette, B.A., M.D., and Annie I. Bissonnette, of Stirling, Ontario; sold with copied service papers.