B38182 Corporal Donaldson Franks Crawford was born in  Lindsay, Ontario on 14 January 1921, the only child of  James Donaldson Crawford and Violet Smith. (His father died when he was 6 and his mother remarried Guy Wallace Smith.) He left school at 14 having completed grade 8, and was a member of the United Church of Canada.

Crawford had served one month with the Sault Ste Marie and Sudbury Regiment and worked as a miner at International Nickle in Sudbury when he enlisted with the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry (Active Service) on 27 July 1940. He was 6 feet tall, 152 pounds, had a fair complexion, and brown hair and eyes. After training at Camp Borden, he was transferred to The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada on 8 April 1941 and continued to train with them in Sussex, New Brunswick. Crawford travelled with the QOR to the UK and continued his training there.

He landed on Juno Beach with D Company on D-Day, 6 June 1941 and fought through Normandy, being appointed Lance Corporal on 24 August and Acting Corporal on 13 September.

Corporal Crawford was killed in action in Boulogne on 20 September 1944, age 23, and was buried in the Calais Canadian War Cemetery, grave reference 6. B. 2.

His mother received his war gratuity of $791.28  Cdn [worth about $14,034.35 in 2024.]