Joe Riley was a 1st Battalion 48th Highlanders “39er ” who sailed onboard the Riena del Pacifico in December 1939 to Glasgow and then the train to Aldershot and their first wartime home – Corunna Barracks. He was a member of the Regimental Boxing Team that took the Canadian Army Overseas Championship in 1942. In October 1943 while a corporal in A Coy, 9 Platoon he was wounded for the first time. In December he was promoted to sergeant and wounded again on 30 December. He remained with the 48th throughout the Italian and Northwest Europe campaigns and returned to Toronto after the war becoming a Toronto Policeman. He died suddenly in 1953.