Lionel was killed during the capture of Regalbuto which was held by Pioneers of the Hermann Goering Division and they didn’t seem to give up. By the preceding of daylight on the 1st of August the town seemed suspiciously quiet and a patrol was sent into town. It seemed that the Hermann Goerings quietly left town and the 48th Highlanders (and Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment from the South) could take the heavy bombed town of Regalbuto. Brigade and Division were immediately informed calling off a full scale artillery attack.

The Highlanders were told to remain where they were and on a higher level it was decided that the occupation of Regalbuto was officially a British honour. The whole morning nothing happened and at noon two companies of the Devonshire Regiment showed up and formally took over the town. In the day’s official dispatches gave entire credit to them for Regalbuto’s capture stating: “Regalbuto fell on August 2 to the Malta Brigade.”

To prove it, a huge Maltese Cross was painted on the heavy wooden door of the Town Hall, and another on the ornate façade of the imposing but battered Facist HQ, the only modern building.

(source: “Dileas” by Kim Beattie)

Lionel was buried outside Regalbuto and later reburied at Agira Canadian War Cemetery.

Lionel lived in Toronto with his parents. It is not known if he had any brothers or sisters. He enlisted on the 9th of September 1939 in Toronto and went overseas in 1941. Here he met Fay “Fanny” Ramsay from Edinburgh, Scotland who he married. After Lionel’s death she came over to Canada and stayed with Lionel’s parents.