Looking for family of W. Cannon, 53rd Field Battery Gunner RCA enlisted Toronto WWII

[Tracy Goulding]

Looking for the family of W. Cannon, who was a Gunner with the 53rd Field Battery in World War II, Royal Canadian Artillery. He enlisted in Toronto, Ontario on September 8th, 1939. Apparently the unit disbanded in England in 1944.

My father found his Certificate of Service years ago at an antique store and brought it home, hoping to find Mr. Cannon or his family to return it to them with no luck. He has had it displayed in his home along with other WWII memorabilia from to members of our own family, in order to honor them all for service to our country.

We are trying again now, hoping through the internet we might have luck finding relatives of Mr. Cannon so we could give them this part of their family history.

I would appreciate hearing from anyone who might have known him or have connections to his family or other suggestions to help in my search. Thank you!

[maple_leaf_eh]

Good luck! It is important to keep the full names of the units in mind when researching.

Suggest you post your email address in case someone finds something long after you've stopped looking. For spam protection suggest breaking it up with words for the dot's and at's.

While looking for 53rd Battery, I found 53rd Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment.

Not the same thing -
"This Reserve Force regiment originated in Yorkton, Saskatchewan on 1 April 1946, when the '53rd Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RCA' was authorized to be formed.1 It was redesignated: '53rd Field Regiment, RCA' on 30 July 1954;2 and '53rd Field Artillery Regiment, RCA' on 12 April 1960.3 It was reduced to nil strength and transferred to the Supplementary Order of Battle on 15 October 1968."

I found the fol information on 53rd Battery, but it is not much help because the unit never left Canada, serving as coastal artillery in Nova Scotia:

1ST (HALIFAX-DARTMOUTH) FIELD ARTILLERY REGIMENT, RCA ... On 1 November 1960, it was amalgamated with the '36th Medium Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RCA' (see below) and redesignated the '1st (Halifax-Dartmouth) Field Artillery Regiment, RCA'.<14>

"<footnote> 14. CAO 76-2, Pt 'B', Supp Issue No 682/60. The regiment with its 51st, 52nd and 53rd Batteries amalgamated with the 36th Medium Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RCA, and its 87th, 201st and 205th batteries. The new regiment retained only four batteries, the 53rd and 205th Batteries being absorbed by the regiment as a whole.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Dear Tracy,

Welcome to MLU and great to hear about your quest!

Further to Terry's pointers, please read http://www.mapleleafup.net/locator/research.html. While this page is antiquated in internet terms (hence some links no longer work), it may be of further help to you.

Regards,
Hanno