Name: Basil Garnet Sexton Rank: Lieutenant Service Number: 160490 Service: Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment), British Army Date of Birth: April 21, 1920 Place of Birth: Windsor, Hants County, Nova Scotia Date of Enlistment: 1940 or earlier Place of Enlistment: England Age at Enlistment: Unknown Address at Enlistment: North West London, England Marital Status: Married Next of Kin: Jeanne Mary Sexton (Wife) Date of Death: April 23, 1943 Age: 23 Cemetery: Massicault War Cemetery, Borj el Amri (Massicault), Manouba, Tunisia Grave: Section I, Row K, Grave 7 Commemorated on Page 212 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance Displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on April 29 Basil Garnet Sexton was the son of Blaine Nathaniel Sexton (1891-1966) and Gladys Lily (Byworth) Sexton (1897-1934), and the husband of Jeanne Mary (Cooper) Sexton (1919-2005) of Edgeware, Middlesex, London. Basil’s father was born in Falmouth, Hants Co., NS, and his mother was born in Woodford Green, Essex, England. In 1916, Basil’s father joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force and fought in France on the Western Front during WWI. After the war, he married Gladys Byworth on March 6, 1919, and the two moved to Nova Scotia. They stayed only a short time and moved back to England due to Gladys’ homesickness. Upon their return to the UK, they initially lived with Gladys’ parents Henry Alfred Byworth and Lily Eliza Byworth on Romney Marsh Road, in Dymchurch, Kent, England in 1921. Basil’s father Blaine Nathaniel Sexton was a British ice hockey player who competed in the 1924 Winter Olympics and in the 1928 Winter Olympics. He was instrumental in not only expanding Ice Hockey in the UK, but across Europe. Known as England’s “Mr. Hockey,” and in Europe as B.N. Sexton, he was inducted into the UK Hockey Hall of fame in 1950. In 1930, Basil was living at 6 Makepeace Mansions in Highgate, part of the London Borough of Camden, England. Basil’s mother died in Birchington, Kent in 1934. In 1936, he lived at 47 Eastcheap St. in East Central London. He returned to Nova Scotia at the age of 16 departing the UK on July 1, 1936, on the Furness Steamship Lines’ SS Nova Scotia, possibly to see his grandparents or other relatives there. Basil’s date of enlistment is not known, but on December 7, 1940, he was promoted from Cadet with the 163rd OCTU (Officer Cadet Training Unit) to Second Lieutenant with the Royal Fusiliers. The 163rd OCTU was stationed at Morecambe, a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster, in Lancashire, England on Morecambe Bay, which abuts the Irish Sea. Basil served with the Royal Fusiliers throughout his service in WWII. In April of 1943, the 9th (2nd City of London) Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers were in Tunisia during the Tunisia Campaign. They were involved in the Battle of Longstop Hill, which took place from April 21–23, 1943, in a mountainous region 30-35 miles West of Tunis. The battle was fought for control over the heights of Djebel el Ahmera and Djebel Rhar, together known as Longstop Hill, between the British forces of the First Army and German units of the 5th Panzer Army. 78th Battleaxe Division infantry and Churchill tanks of the North Irish Horse captured Longstop Hill after bitter fighting in which the tanks created a measure of tactical surprise by driving up the hill, a manoeuvre that only Churchill tanks could achieve. The attackers broke through the German defences, which were the last major barrier on the road to Tunis. Lieutenant Basil Sexton was killed in action on April 23, 1943. Lt. Basil Garnet Sexton is interred in the Massicault War Cemetery in Tunisia, and he is also commemorated on a family grave marker at the Falmouth Cemetery, in Falmouth, Nova Scotia along with Catherine Elliott (1918-1934), as the grandchildren of John Lewis Sexton (1863-1943) and Georgina (Curry) Sexton (1866-1944). John and Georgina were Basil’s paternal grandparents.

Source: Canadian Virtual War Memorial findagrave - Massicault War Cemetery findagrave - family marker at the Falmouth Cemetery, NS UK, London Gazettes World War II Military Notices, 1939-1945 Wikipedia – Blaine Nathaniel Sexton