Subject

Canadian firefighter, a section leader from Montreal. Died in a road accident in Bristol.

Andrew Behan has kindly provided this research: Section Leader Alfred Lapierre was born on 19 January 1893. According to the Veterans Affairs Canada website he was born on 19 January 1883 and this would have made him aged 60 years when he died on 30 April 1943. However his gravestone and the Civil Registration Index held at the General Register Office in London both give his age at death as 50 years, a more realistic age for a firefighter, and I believe the Canadian website contains a typographical error. Their website also states that he was ​the son of Oscar Brillon, also known as Lapierre, and Marie Chayer-Brillon, also known as Lapierre and that he was the separated husband of Rosa Lapierre and father of Gunner Roger Lapierre, Royal Canadian Artillery, Diana Lapierre and Aimé Lapierre. His gravestone again also differs showing he was the husband of Rosa Beauchamp and the father of Berthe and Roger.

He had been a firefighter for two years in Montreal, Province of Quebec, Canada, when on 9 June 1942 he enlisted as a member of the Corps of Canadian Firefighters in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Service Number T.212 and came to England to assist the National Fire Service. He died, aged 50 years, on 30 April 1943 in Bristol, Gloucestershire and was buried in Plot 34, Row H, Grave 9 in the Brookwood Military Cemetery, Brookwood, Woking, Surrey.

The memorial plaque to Canadian Firefighters on The Telegraph public house, Telegraph Road, Putney, shows that he died in a road accident in Bristol, whilst The Book of Remembrance of the Firefighters Memorial Trust states that he died from injuries sustained in a training exercise (they could both be true). He was posthumously awarded both the War Medal 1939-1945 and the Defence Medal. He is also commemorated on the National Firefighters Memorial at the junction of Carter Lane and Sermon Lane, London, EC4.