Name: Girvan Fraser Archibald Rank: Lieutenant Service: West Nova Scotia Regiment, RCIC Date of Birth: June 11, 1915 Place of Birth: Marquis, Moose Jaw Division, Saskatchewan Date of Enlistment: September 26, 1932 (pre-war) September 6, 1939 (WWII) Place of Enlistment: Wellington Barracks, Halifax, Nova Scotia Address at Enlistment: Stellarton, Pictou Co., Nova Scotia Age at Enlistment: 17 24 (Active service, WWII) Occupation: Labourer Marital Status: Single (at enlistment) Religion: United Next of Kin: Alice Archibald (Mother) Date of Death: December 20, 1943 Age at Death: 28 Cemetery: Rome War Cemetery, Rome, Italy Grave: I, B, 9 Girvan Fraser Archibald was the son of Lester Ward Archibald (born in Alma, Nova Scotia, 1886–1921) and Alice (Hatfield) Fraser Culton (1888–1971). He was the brother of Melvin Irwin Archibald (1916–1927), Norma Glendine Archibald Fulmer (1918–2002), and infant William Archibald (1920). He married Pansy Olive (Hayden) Archibald (born 1908), of Pictou, Nova Scotia in 1938. His grandparents were from Pictou County, and although his parents left Nova Scotia for Saskatchewan in 1910 to homestead north of Marquis, Girvan’s ties to Pictou County remained strong throughout his life. He enlisted on September 26, 1932, in Stellarton, Pictou County, joining the Pictou Highlanders. He served with the regiment until August 1, 1935. On August 2, 1935, he re‑attested at Aldershot, Kings County, with the Royal Canadian Regiment. He was promoted to Lance Corporal in June 1937, qualified as a Signaller in November 1937, and re‑engaged with the RCR at Connaught Ranges, Ontario, on August 2, 1938. In 1939 he advanced through the ranks of Corporal, Acting Sergeant, and Sergeant. He received his commission as a Second Lieutenant (Provisional) on October 10, 1942, and was confirmed as a Lieutenant on November 13, 1942. He departed Canada on June 10, 1943, arriving in the United Kingdom on June 18, 1943. He left the UK for the Mediterranean on September 17, 1943, and disembarked on September 24, 1943. Before joining the fighting in Italy, he was posted on October 3, 1943, to the Allied School of Infantry at Aïn Smara in the Constantine region of Algeria. Established after the North African landings of Operation Torch in November 1942, the school provided advanced infantry training tailored to the conditions of the Mediterranean and Italian campaigns. He was mortally wounded in action at The Gully on December 17, 1943, and died of wounds as a prisoner of war on December 20, 1943. The fighting at The Gully occurred during the Canadian advance toward Ortona in December 1943, part of the broader Allied effort to break through the German Winter Line in central Italy. The terrain south of Ortona forced attacking units into narrow approaches dominated by well‑prepared German defensive positions. The Gully itself was a deep ravine reinforced with machine‑gun posts, mortars, and infantry dug‑in along the banks, making it one of the strongest German positions on the route north. Canadian units were required to make repeated assaults in difficult winter conditions, often gaining only small amounts of ground at high cost. A contemporary account of the battle recorded: “At 4 pm on Dec. 17th, the West Novas, numbered 160 all ranks, rose out of their water-logged slit trenches and advanced once more through those fatal muddy vineyards before the gully. For support, they had exactly three tanks. What followed is a story of individual and collective heroism too long to narrate in these pages, and in this long battle for Ortona it was an old story after all. Led by their devoted band of surviving officers and NCO’s, the West Novas beat and brook in blood on the stout defences of the crossing. Some of them actually got inside the German positions. But they had lost one fifth of their effectives in a few minutes and there was no choice but to withdraw or be annihilated. To Brigadier Gibson, watching the fight from West Nova HQ, Major Waterman returned with the grim story. The wounded included Captains R.W. Bullock, D.W.R. Dodge, and Lieutenants E.A. Haines, R. E. Logan, and G. E. Romkey, while Lt. G. F. Archibald, mortally wounded in the enemy positions, died in a German first aid post some time later.” His service file records that he died of wounds at the Luftwaffe Hospital at Rome Monte Mario. On June 24, 2014, the Government of Saskatchewan named Archibald Lake in his honour, ensuring that his service and sacrifice are remembered in the province where his family once homesteaded.

Sources: Raddall, Thomas, (1948), West Nova Scotia Regiment: A History Service file: Girvan Fraser Archibald