Police Constable Arthur Thomas Orrell

Arthur Thomas Orrell was born on the 7th of April 1916 at St Catherines, Ontario, the son of Edward and Annie Orrell. Growing up, he served part-time in the Canadian Militia, then became a welder by trade. Switching vocations in 1938, Orrell became a police officer in Toronto, where he lived at 123 Elmer Ave with his wife Eileen, whom with he later had a daughter. Orrell served as Police Constable No. 354 walking the beat out of No. 10 Police Station at Main Street and Gerrard Street East in East Toronto.

In June 1939, Orrell was praised in local newspapers for his courage in single-handedly facing down an angry mob in Toronto’s Chinatown about to lynch a shopkeeper whom they accused of being a traitor.

On September 1st, 1942, PC Orrell answered the call for skilled tradesmen to join the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps of the Canadian Army and was employed as a military welder. In December, while in Basic Training at St Jean, Quebec, he was appointed an Assistant Instructor, and made an Acting Lance Corporal. Impressed by his leadership skills, his superiors deemed him “officer material”, and in January 1943, Orrell requested a transfer to the 48th Highlanders of Canada, as he was “keen to enter a combatant unit”.

Sadly, on March 3rd, 1943, while still in training at No. 48 Canadian Army (Basic) Training School in St Jean, Quebec, Orrell became ill and died of Heart Failure.

Police Constable Arthur Thomas Orrell is buried in the Veterans Plot at Victoria Lawn Cemetery in his hometown of St Catherines, Ontario.