B134826 Rifleman Walter Howard Mercer was born in Toronto on 2 May 1923, son of Walter Hayes Mercer and Edna Annie Coutanche. He attended Hartman Jones Memorial School and East York Collegiate.

Mercer enlisted in The Queen’s Own Rifles in October 1942 and went overseas in February 1943. A brother, Flying Officer Alan Mercer, also served in WWII with the Royal Canadian Air Force.

He landed with B Company on the first wave of D-Day but was killed by the full blast of a German 88 mm shell on 25 July 1944, aged 21.

He is buried in Beny-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery, in Normandy.