89 The Royal Canadian Legion www.mbnwo.legion.ca CONNELL, William Argyle WWII Argyle was born on November 8, 1907, to James and Alberta (Anderson) Connell in Grandview, Manitoba. He grew up in the Neepawa area and attended Mountain View School north of Neepawa. In August 1942, he enlisted with the Royal Canadian Army Corps and after a short training in Portage, Manitoba and Red Deer, Alberta, he went overseas. He served overseas in England, at D-Day in Normandy, as well as in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. He drove an ambulance into France the day after D-Day. Argyle was injured in Germany and sent home to Canada in August 1945. He spent some time getting treatment at a military hospital in Vancouver before returning to Neepawa. He married his wife, Anna Campbell, of Franklin in 1941 and they continued to live in Neepawa. He was a member of The Royal Canadian Legion Neepawa Branch 23 for 46 years. Argyle passed away on December 23, 1993 and was buried in Riverside Cemetery in Neepawa. COULL, William James “Bill” WWII Bill was the third of four children born to John J. and Ada E. Coull of Winnipeg (two children passed away in infancy). The family later moved to Windsor, Ontario. The parents separated and Ada re-married to Thomas Crawford in 1919. Their father sent William and his sister, Helen, to be fostered with the McMail family of Firdale, finishing grade VIII. He left Firdale at the age of fourteen and worked various jobs until he moved to Windsor to join his sister, who had previously moved there. For a number of years, William still returned to Firdale in the fall to help Mr. McMail with the harvest. William worked for the Ford Motor Company as a machinist for nine years. William married Lillian Skeet, formerly of Edrans, Manitoba in January 1939. Lillian, who was friends with William’s sister, worked for Chrysler Corp. in Windsor.William and Lillian had two children, Glen William Coull (March 9, 1941) and Kathryn Helen Coull (February 8, 1943). On January 21, 1944, William enlisted in London, Ontario in the Algonquin Regiment R.C.I.C. and trained in Petawawa. He was selected for Driver Mechanic Training, however, owing to exigences of the service, had to be dispatched without receiving further training. He arrived in the United Kingdom in July 1944. He was subsequently sent to France on September 18, 1944 and then on to Belgium. William was critically wounded in the spine by mortar shell on October 14, 1944 while fighting in the Battle of Leopold Canal, part of the larger Battle for the Scheldt, which involved the Allies pushing through Belgium and the Netherlands to liberate the ports in Antwerp. William was evacuated to Westminster Hospital in the UK where he underwent preliminary surgery. William was transferred to Canada on January 11, 1945 and arrived at Christie St. Hospital in Toronto on February 23, 1945. Due to censorship information during the war, his wife, Lillian, had received word that he was injured but no other information on his condition or the type of injury he had sustained. She had barely four days to realize the enormity of his injuries, when he passed away on February 27, 1945, leaving his wife, Lillian, to raise his two-year-old daughter Kathryn and four-year-old son Glen alone. Private William J. Coull was awarded the 1939-1945 Star, France and Germany Star, War Medal 1939-1945 and Canadian Volunteer Service Medal and Clasp. Coull Lake in northern Ontario was named in his honour by the province of Ontario on March 3, 1960.
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