Name: Cecil Clayton Fancy Rank: Private Service Number: F/39598 Service: West Nova Scotia Regiment, Royal Canadian Infantry Corps Date of Birth: June 16, 1900 Place of Birth: Bakers Settlement, Lunenburg Co., NS Date of Enlistment: September 14, 1939 Place of Enlistment: Bridgewater, Lunenburg Co., NS Address at Enlistment: Mahone Bay, Lunenburg Co., NS Age at Enlistment: 39 Height: 5 feet, 8 inches Complexion: Fair Eye Colour: Gray Hair Colour: Light Brown Occupation: Blacksmith, Truck Driver Marital Status: Married Religion: Baptist Next of Kin: Eva Fancy (Wife), Mahone Bay, NS Date of Death: December 16, 1943 Age: 43 Cemetery: Moro River Canadian War Cemetery, Ortona, Italy Grave: Section 9, Row A, Grave 13 Commemorated on Page 158 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance Displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on April 2 Cecil Clayton Fancy was the son of Deacon David Austin Fancy (1866-1949) and Estelle ‘Stella’ Hamm Fancy (1865-1956), the brother of Jessie (Fancy) Jennings (b. 1892) and Byron E Fancy (1894-1976), the husband of Eva Martha (Nauss) Fancy (1906-1991), and the father of Cecil Robert Ellsworth Fancy (1926- 1951), Sigrid Jessie Fancy (1928-2005), Bertha Evelyn Lucille (Fancy) Horne (1927-2018), Doris Joan (Fancy) Seaboyer (1930-2017), and Lorna Fancy (b. 1932). Cecil’s son, Cecil Rober Ellsworth Fancy, served with the Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR) during the Korean War and was killed June 5, 1951. He is interred at the United Nations Cemetery in Busan, South Korea. Cecil Clayton was working as a blacksmith and living with his wife, Eva, and their children in Mahone Bay when he enlisted in the West Nova Scotia Regiment (WNSR). He served one week in the Militia with the WNSR before his active enlistment for the Second World War. After enlistment and his induction into the Canadian Army, Cecil embarked in Halifax for the United Kingdom on December 21, 1939, and disembarks in Gourock, Scotland on New Year’s Eve of 1939, and arrived at Aldershot Command on New Year’s Day 1940. He qualified as a blacksmith March 12, 1940. On July 12, 1942, he qualified a Driver 1st Class. He departed the UK for the Mediterranean on June 25, 1943, to serve in Italy. He served during the Italian Campaign with the WNSR, and was fighting in the area of the Moro River in December of 1943. “The Gully” was fought over for 10 days (December 10-19) and became a Battle Honour granted to Canadian units participating which included the WNSR. The gully had to be secured before the Canadians could begin the fight to take the town of Ortona. Having served 103 days in Canada, and 1456 days overseas, Cecil was one of the 30 Canadians killed in action during the fight for “The Gully” outside Ortona on December 16, 1943. He was initially buried near San Vito on the west side of the road in an orchard, and was reinterred at the Moro River Canadian War Cemetery, in Ortona, Italy. Private Fancy is also commemorated on the Mahone Bay cenotaph.

Sources: Library and Archives Canada Canadian Virtual War Memorial CanadiaSoldiers.com – Battle of the Gully, Italian Campaign findagrave