• Normandy Massacres

Date of birth:

February 7th, 1924 (Sydney/Nova Scotia, Canada.)

Date of death:

June 8th, 1944 (Saint-Germain-la-Blanche-Herbe, France)

Buried on:

Canadian War Cemetery Bretteville-sur-Laize
Plot: XIV. Row: E. Grave: 7.

Service number:

F/52169

Nationality:

Canadian

George Richard MacNaughton was orphaned at a young age. He spent nine formative years at the Nova Scotia Training School in Brookside, where he received basic education and engaged in farm work. He completed Grade V and left school at the age of sixteen, having attended for seven years. Though his academic performance was noted as below average, he was physically robust and accustomed to hard labor.

Before enlisting, MacNaughton worked various jobs, including as a bricklayer’s helper in a steel plant, a dishwasher at a lunch counter, a laborer in a fish storage facility, a stevedore in Halifax, and a baggage porter at the Canadian National Railway Station. He was fluent in English and had some familiarity with French, and he enjoyed sports such as hockey, soccer, quoits, and softball. He also liked attending movies and sporting events.

On March 8, 1943, at the age of nineteen, MacNaughton enlisted in the Canadian Army at Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was assigned Regimental Number F52169 and joined the North Nova Scotia Highlanders. His military training began at No. 6 District Depot and continued at A-14 Canadian Infantry Training Centre in Aldershot. He was later deployed overseas, arriving in the United Kingdom in August 1943 and subsequently disembarking in France in early June 1944.

Private MacNaughton participated in the D-Day landings and was reported missing in action on June 7, 1944, during combat in the Western European Theatre. He was later officially presumed to have been killed in action on that same day. His remains were interred at the Bretteville-sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery in France. It was later confirmed that his death was linked to the murder of Canadian POWs by Waffen-SS soldiers at the Ardenne Abbaye.

At the time of his death, MacNaughton was unmarried and had no children. His next of kin was his sister, Mrs. Nancy Morrison, who resided on Argyle Street in Sydney, Nova Scotia. He left no will and had no known assets or insurance.

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• - CAMPBELL, I.J., Murder at the Abbaye, Golden Dog Press, Ottowa, 2000.
  - Service record(s)

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