C26365 Rifleman Arthur Orville Vickery Williams was born on 14 January 1919 in Lindsay, Ontario, the son of Alfred Stanley Williams and Neta Lillian Vickery. He had three sisters, was educated at Lindsay public schools and was a member of Queen St United Church in Lindsay where his father was the Sunday School Superintendant.

Williams was delivering for a grocery store when enlisted with the 45th Field Battery of the Royal Canadian Artillery in Lindsay on 29 November 1939 which became the 12th Field Battery. He trained in Tracadie, New Brunswick and had bouts of hospitalization. He disembarked in the UK on 22 November 1941 and was transferred to the 7th Artillery Field Regiment. During the next few years, he qualified as a regimental signalman (artillery) and was transferred to The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada on 5 August 1943.  He was again in and out of hospital for the next several months.

On 15 April 1944 he was granted permission to marry (as soon as possible) however this was cancelled on 6 June.

He landed on Juno Beach with D Company on D-Day, 6 June 1944. He was killed in action on 11 June, aged 25  during the battle for the village of Le Mesnil Patry.

Unlike all but one of his comrades who fell that day, he is buried at Bretteville-Sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery (south of Caen), grave reference XII. G. 6.

The inscription on his grave marker reads:

IN PROUD AND LOVING MEMORY
OF OUR ONLY SON ARTHUR
WHO DIED TO SAVE OTHERS