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They made the Ultimate Sacrifice
JOHNSTONE, Charles James, Cpl, Canadian Army Provost Corps, S.S. NERISSA - Son of Freda Prince, of Lloydminster, Saskatchewan. Husband of Helene Agnes Johnstone, of Regina, Saskatchewan. He worked with the Robert Simpson Co. and later the Ford Motor Co. He was also an active scoutmaster.
Corporal Johnstone died when the Troopship NERISSA was torpedoed and sunk on 01 May 1941 by U-552.
#10063 Constable Charles James Johnstone age 38 was lost at sea on the only troopship to lose Canadian troops en route to England during WW2. The 5000-ton SS Nerissa had crossed the North Atlantic alone and was approximately 35 miles off the coast of Scotland when at 00.27 hours she was hit by the first of three torpedoes fired from the German submarine U-552 commanded by Erich Topp. Constable Johnstone was last seen on the deck of the ship at one of the lifeboat stations but never made it off the ship alive. The ship sank within four minutes of the first attack. The survivors spent 8 ½ hours in lifeboat and were later rescued by the HMS Veteran and later transferred to the HMS Kingcup. Among the passengers were six other members of the R.C.M.P. Provost Company en route to England as reinforcements to the Provost Corps. They included Acting Corporal #9512 Lewis Archer Denton and Constable #12797 John Hugh Francis Mara both of whom sustained leg injuries. Constables #12502 Raymond Victor Currie and #13298 Alfred R. Nicholas had to be treated for exposure while Constables #13015 G.F. Keeland and #13760 John E. MacPhee were unharmed. Constable Charlie Johnstone had served in the RCMP for 13 years in Ottawa before he was accepted into the reinforcement draft, his wife Helene survived him. (Excerpt from ""Larry Burden's This Day In The RCMP" by Larry Burden / Courtesy of Larry Burden)
Service file for Charles Johnstone Source: The Library and Archives of Canada
Second World War Casualty Index
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