Canada, Selected Service Records of War Dead, 1939-1945

Source Information

Ancestry.com. Canada, Selected Service Records of War Dead, 1939-1945 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
Original data: Second World War Service Files: Canadian Armed Forces War Dead [Selected records.] RG 24. Library and Archives Canada. Ottawa, Ontario.

About Canada, Selected Service Records of War Dead, 1939-1945

In June 1940, 22-year-old Leonard James Patrick Lafleur of Montreal worked as a “fruit clerk” for Steinberg’s, but he had bigger aspirations. The grocery chain had promised to rehire him after his enlistment, but Lafleur was hoping to turn his radio hobby into a career with a broadcasting company. He had been only an average (71%) high school student, but he impressed the R.C.A.F. with his “confident approach” and “upright carriage,” and while the Air Force didn’t consider Lafleur officer material, they decided he “would make an excellent Airgunner.”

L. J. Patrick Lafleur is one of more than 44,000 individuals whose service and sacrifice are documented in the Second World War Service Files: Canadian Armed Forces War Dead held by Library and Archives Canada (LAC). Ancestry.com is pleased to host selections from the service files for Sergeant Lafleur and almost 100 other Canadian soldiers as part of LAC’s “Lest We Forget” educational initiative, which allows students to discover the stories of Canada’s fallen through primary documents.

About the Records

Only records for those who died while serving during the Second World War are available to the public. However, the files that are included in the collection can be rich in content. Each contains multiple documents related to a soldier’s enlistment and service, such as:

  • Enlistment records
  • Medical and dental charts
  • Evaluation reports
  • Medal and promotion entitlements
  • Letters (personal, military, and recommendations)
  • Wills
  • Inventory of personal effects

These documents can include a wide range of details:

  • Birth information
  • Physical descriptions
  • Occupation and employment
  • Education
  • Names of parents, siblings, spouse, and children
  • Addresses for family
  • Military units, squadrons, or names of ships served aboard
  • Cause of death, burial details, and estate records
  • Grave locations
  • Requests regarding survivor’s benefits

Searching the Records

These records may be browsed by name or searched by a solder’s name, birth date, death date, or keyword. The database includes images of records in the file.

Some items are in French.