Lieutenant-Colonel Laurent Roy
Fusiliers Mont-Royal

Our second in command Major C. F. L. Roy was found in the skin of a merchant selling a typewriter to two war correspondents. Now we know he is the man to occupy the position of Mess President for the officers mess. Tow we can buy two new typewriters for our secretary.

(War diary, 25 May 1945)

Born on 30 December 1915 in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Charles Francis Laurent Roy worked for the Canada Starch company and graduated from the Joliette Seminary. Since 1935 he had been a commissioned officer in the Régiment de Joliette, which mobilized in 1942 for home service as part of the Atlantic Command in New Brunswick and Newfoundland. In January 1945, the regiment went overseas to England where it was broken-up for reinforcements. Roy as attached to the Fusiliers Mont-Royal as second-in-command during the final phase of the Northwest Europe campaign.

As a major in the Régiment de Joliette at Camp Sussex, New Brunswick in November 1942, Roy had been appointed defence counsel for a private charged with desertion. Called for army service in January 1942, Private Lucien Brule took a weekend pass on 15 May. When he overstayed his leave, he was declared a deserter and finally apprehended at his farm in Saint-Valère, Quebec on 7 October. He claimed that a priest and member of parliament Armand Cloutier had assured his father that the wayward soldier could “keep quiet on the farm and he would not be bothered by anyone.”

In his closing speech for the defence, Roy stated that his client was one of those who “think that the words of the parish priest and the depute of Parliament are law. They look for these men as their guides and they will listen to their advice at any time.” The court was unpersuaded, but convicted Lucien of AWL rather than desertion. “Many men called for service do not show up, but Private Brule did not do this,” Roy stated in the mitigation of punishment. The court sentenced him to fifty-six days detention.

Once overseas, Roy served the Fusiliers Mont-Royal as second-in-command from February to June 1945, when he succeeded Lieutenant-Colonel J.A. Dextraze, who had volunteered to command a battalion in the Pacific theatre. Roy was officially promoted in August and led the regiment home in October 1945.

He resumed work for the Canada Starch Company as sales director Northern Ontario and Quebec. He died from a long illness on 8 May 1966.