Willard Stanton Caseley was born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA in 1908. His parents moved back to Canada in 1913 when Willard was four years old. He was raised in Cascumpec, Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Before joining the 1st KOSB on 23rd July 1944, he served in the NPAM, Prince Edward Island Light Infantry, qualified as a Lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Artillery, was posted to H.A.A. battery, then 21st A.A. Regiment, and later served in training/staff appointments before being attached to A-I Petawawa to qualify in field artillery and ultimately taking the infantry course specifically to qualify for the British Army. He then became part of the CANLoan program.

He was also a schoolteacher, fiddle player, avid rider, and boater. He attended Prince of Wales College and Mount Allison. His assessment notes he "has superior learning ability as indicated by M-test."

He also taught at a school in Saint Pierre et Miquelon. Uncle Willard was engaged to be married, and his fiancée never remarried.

His fiddle remains in the family and is still played today..

(Thanks to his Great-Niece, Melanie, for the information)

Willard was killed in action in his first attack. We have prepared a detailed report on the action in Vire/Vaudry/Le Pissot here (https://graylingmedia.wixsite.com/1stkosbin1940s/kosb-battles/vaudry)

War Diary for the date of death:

Bn moved out in TCVs(Troop Carrying Vehicle) at 0500 hrs and arrived at assembly area 672379 at 0700 hrs.

The 'O' Group moved to S.L. at 0815 and the attack with "C" Coy on left and "D" Coy on right commenced at 0845 hrs.

By 0955 hrs MONTISANGER was occupied without opposition. Patrols were sent out to the main road and river S of PISSOT. Two bridges (675340 - 666340) reported blown.

An attack on positions S of the river (sqs 6734, 6735) was ordered at 1700 hrs to start at 1800 hrs. This attack was carried out with "C" Coy on the right and "A" Coy on the left. The two coys reached their first objective and pushed on but were pinned down by enemy MG fire from flanks when approaching the railway (sq 6737). These two coys made this adv against fairly heavy opposition, almost completely unsupported. Owing to the blowing of the br (675340) and the speed with which the attack had to be prepared, it was not possible to get any sp arms to them except one tp of tanks which got over later in the evening, and, by a very gallant attack, saved the situation on "C" Coy front.

One complete pl of "A" Coy is missing from this operation and many offrs and ORs of both coys were killed and wounded.

Late that night orders were received from Bde that the Bn was to consolidate - if necessary withdrawing.

The withdrawal of the two fwd coys was carried out and by first light the Bn was in position astride the bridge at 675340.