Name: Percy Clayton Cromwell Rank: Private Service No: F/40471 Regiment/Service: Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers Unit Text: 3 Infantry Troops Workshop Date of Birth: February 12, 1914 Place of Birth: Yarmouth, NS Date of Enlistment: May 14, 1940 Place of Enlistment: Aldershot, NS Address At Enlistment: Halifax, NS Age at Enlistment: 26 Height: 5 feet, 4 inches Weight: 121 lbs. Complexion: Dark Eyes: Brown Hair: Black Trade: Labourer Marital Status: Married Religion: Roman Catholic Next of Kin: Lillian B Cromwell [Wife] Yarmouth, NS Date of Death: February 8, 1945 Age at Death: 32 Cemetery: Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery (Gelderland, Netherlands) Grave Reference: XVI. E. 12. The 29th name on the WWII list of the Yarmouth War Memorial Commemorated on page 507 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance Displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on October 28 Percy Clayton Cromwell was the son of James Alfred and Annie May Cromwell, of Yarmouth, husband of Lillian Beryl Cromwell, of Yarmouth and father of Clayton Louis, Rayetta Joanne, Lillian May, and Richard Wayne Cromwell. The family moved to Yarmouth when Private Cromwell enlisted. He worked as a construction labourer in Halifax between 1937 and 1939 and as a Porter with the Canadian Pacific Railway at Halifax in 1939 and 1940. Having enlisted in May 1940, he served in Canada between February 12, 1940 and June 23, 1942, the the United Kingdom between June 24, 1942 and August 3, 1944, and in France and the Netherlands from August 4, 1944 until the time of his death. Men of the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers performed important work behind the scenes keeping the Canadian Army’s equipment and vehicles working throughout the campaigns in Italy and Northwest Europe. Private Crowell died as a result of drowning on February 8, 1945. He was missing from Barracks on that night and it was not until March 12, 1945 that his body was discovered in a canal near Veghel, in southern Netherlands.

Sources and Information: Commonwealth War Graves Commission Veterans Affairs Canada Library and Archives Canada