World War 2 Llewellyn (Bill) Doull

Hometown: Drummondville, Quebec

Enlistment Age: 22

Regiment: Royal Rifles of Canada, “D” Company

Served: 1941 – 1945

Llewellyn (Bill) Doull was born on November 25, 1919 in Moncton, NB. His family moved to Drummondville, QC when he was 6 years old. At 16, he was working at the Canadian Celanese during the week and training with the Seventh Eleventh Hussars in Bishopton on the weekends. In the early summer of 1941, Bill mailed an application to join the navy. A couple of weeks later his older brother Lloyd and stepbrother Tom were off to Richmond to sign up with the Royal Rifles of Canada so Bill went with them. When he got home that day his papers had arrived telling him he had been accepted in the Navy, but he had already signed his name with the RRC and became part of “D” Company. In October 1941 the RRC and Winnipeg Grenadiers secretly sailed out of Vancouver on the Awatea, headed to Hong Kong to reinforce the British enclave. The Japanese attacked Hong Kong 8 hours after they attacked Pearl Harbour, vastly outnumbering the Allied force. The battle lasted 17 1/2 days before the British surrendered on Christmas Day, 1941. Bill returned to Drummondville in September 1945 after spending 3 years and 10 months as a Japanese POW in hellish slave labour camps. In 1946 he married Claire Bullard and together they raised their three children. He passed away at home in his own bed in 2013 at the age of 93.

“We Will Remember Them”