Name: Gordon Livingstone Perry, Jr Rank: Private First Class Service Number: 31095398 Service: 175th Infantry Regiment, 29th Division, US Army Awards: Purple Heart Date of Birth: February 2, 1915 Place of Birth: Lynn, Essex Co., Massachusetts Date of Enlistment: May 14, 1942 Place of Enlistment: Boston, Massachusetts Address at Enlistment: Lynn, Essex Co., Massachusetts Age at Enlistment: 27 Height: 5 feet, 7 inches Complexion: Light Hair Color: Brown Eye Color: Brown Occupation: Painter Marital Status: Single Next of Kin: Mr. Earl M Perry, brother, Saugus, Mass. Date of Death: June 13, 1944 Age: 29 Cemetery: Normandy American Cemetery, France Grave: Section G, Row 4, Grave 40 Gordon Livingstone Perry, Junior, was the son of Gordon Livingstone Perry (1888-1942) and Fanny Irene Perry (1887-1943). His father was born in Barton, Digby Co., Nova Scotia, and moved to Massachusetts in 1906. Gordon’ mother was born in Massachusetts. He had a brother Earle Miller Perry (1917-2002) and a sister Geraldine Vernon Perry (1918-1998). His paternal grandfather, Anthony Augustus Perry (1842-1917), was born in Beaver River, Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia. His paternal grandmother Orlinda May Haines (1847-1925) was born in Hillgrove, Digby County, NS. In 1920, Gordon was living with parents and his mother’s parents, John M Robertson (1852-1938) and Catherine ‘Cassie’ (McPherson) Robertson (1853-1934) on Oakland Avenue in Lynn, Mass. in a large home which also included his paternal aunt Celia Robertson Fay, and her two children (his cousins) Lawrence A Fay and Leon C Fay. By 1940, Gordon was working as a sprayer at an electric motor company and still living with his parents in Lynn, Massachusetts. Gordon registered for the US Draft on October 16, 1940, in Lynn. He was working for the B. F. Sturtevant Company in Readville, in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston. After enlistment in May of 1942, he was assigned to the 175th Infantry Regiment, a unit of the 92th Division of the US Army. The 175th Regiment trained in the United States until October 5, 1942, when it sailed to England on the ocean liner RMS Queen Elizabeth. The 175th was quartered at the Tidworth Barracks where it underwent intense training until its move to Cornwall. The regiment trained on the cold moors during the late summer of 1943 and then transitioned to invasion training. It performed amphibious assault training at Slapton Sands. It was then moved to the invasion assembly area in Devon. On June 4, 1944, the regiment boarded the LSTs which would carry them to the beaches of Normandy. Following a 24-hour delay, the 115th and 116th Infantry assaulted the beaches on June 6th. The 175th, the 29th Division's reserve, landed on the still unsecured Omaha Beach on the morning of June 7th, and proceeded to its objective to seize the village of Isigny. It pushed through Isigny and crossed the Vire River and on to St Lo. Private First Class Gordon Livingstone Perry, Jr was killed in action June 13, 1944, during the Normandy Campaign in the fight in and around River Vire River. Gordon was initially interred at the La Cambe cemetery (designated as temporary cemetery 3539 by the US Army Graves Registration Service) in Section C, Row 4, Grave 65 and, with grave consolidation, was reinterred at the Normandy American Cemetery on the French Coast in Colleville-sur-Mer, in Section G, Row 4, Grave 40. La Cambe was established by the United States Army Graves Registration Service during the war, and was originally the resting place for both American and German soldiers, sailors and airmen buried in two adjacent fields. In 1945, the Americans transferred two-thirds of their fallen from La Cambe back to America whilst the remainder were re-interred at the Normandy American Cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach at Colleville-sur- Mer.

Sources: American Battle Monuments Commission – Gordon L. Perry American Battle Monuments Commission – Normandy American Cemetery 175th Infantry Regiment findagrave