Name: Rank: Service: Date of Birth: Place of Birth: Date of Enlistment: Place of Enlistment: Marital Status: Occupation: Religion: Religion: Date of Death: Age at Death: Cemetery: Grave Reference:

Sources findagrave Canadian Virtual War Memorial

Elmer Norman Doane Lieutenant West Nova Scotia Regiment, R.C.I.C December 10, 1919 Atlantic, Shelburne Co., Nova Scotia February 1, 1942 New Glasgow, NS Single Farmer United Church William J. Doane (Father), Quincy, Massachusetts December 12, 1943 24 Moro River Canadian War Cemetery V. A. 12. Commemorated on page 154 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance Displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on March 31 Elmer Norman Doane was the son of William Jabez Doane (1892-1967) and Marion Beatrice (Greenwood) Doane (1894-1925), and the brother of Kathleen ‘Kathlyn’ Eleanor Doane Jordan (1915-2003). His mother Marion Doane died when Elmer was only 8, and his stepmother, Kathlyn Florence Perry (1907-1934) who his father married in 1926, died in 1934 when Elmer was 17. In 1930, Elmer was living with his father in Arlington, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts with his sister Kathlyn and his half-brother William Jabez Doane Jr (1929-2002), from his father’s second marriage to Kathlyn Perry. The family moved to Quincy, Mass. in the 1930’s when Elmer’s father married his third wife, Winifred Helen Keith (1902-1981). Elmer was living with his father in Quincy, and his sister lived in Shelburne with her maternal grandparents. During WWII, Elmer’s sister was a Lieutenant with the US Medical Corps who served in the US, and Sicily. She enlisted September 19, 1942, was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant sometime in the spring of 1945 and served until discharged on May 19, 1946. She married a US Army Captain, Sherman Curtis Jordan (1913-2002) who was also born in Shelburne Co., NS and later moved to the US. Elmer had served in the United States Home Guard for a time while in the US, before joining the Canadian Army in Nova Scotia. Elmer enlisted in the Non-Permanent Active Militia (NPAM) in Shelburne, NS, on July 27, 1940, and served with the 2nd Battalion, West Nova Scotia Regiment and completed annual training in the Reserves. At that time, he listed his next of kin as his grandfather S K Greenwood in Shelburne. He was employed permanently at No. 61 CIBTC with 61 MTC as of September 7, 1940. He was briefly hospitalised in New Glasgow from December 1-3, 1940, with mild influenza and recovered well. He was serving with 61 MTC (the Motor Transport Corps at No. 61 CIBTC) as an instructor when he enlisted for active service in WWII on February 1, 1942, in New Glasgow, Pictou Co., NS. He was promoted immediately to Acting Sergeant and then to Sergeant (Instructor) on April 1, 1942. Elmer was posted to Brockville, Ontario and promoted to Second Lieutenant on May 9, 1942, and to Lieutenant on June 12, 1942. He embarked for overseas on March 9, 1943, arriving in the United Kingdom March 17th. In the middle of June, he departed England for the Mediterranean Theatre, landing on July 10, 1943. On December 12, 1943, Lieutenant Doane was struck by a shell and died instantly in an attempt to drive off the German patrols during the advance on Ortona, Italy. He is interred at the Moro River Canadian War Cemetery in San Donato, Commune of Ortona, Province of Chieti, Italy. The family inscription on the grave reads, “He gave his life that others might have peace”