K 800311 Pte STRACHAN, William Leslie
Pte Strachan of Virden served with the RCR. He died on 30 May 1951 at the age of 21 at Chail Li while carrying out wounded under the auspices of the Red Cross. He is commemorated at the United Nations Cemetery in Busan Korea. He was the son of Bill and Ina Strachan and was survied by four sisters and two brothers. His brother recalls (16 November 2001): Let was born and raised in the Virden area of Manitoba. He received his education in rural schools east of Virden. In his teen years, he worked on farms, when not in school. Driving tractors was his favourite job. He enjoyed sports and liked to hunt. He was very generous and good to his parents. The family moved to Kelowna, BC in 1945 where Les worked on a fruit ranch. He worked there until 1950 when the family moved to town. He took a job in a a juice factory but hated it and decided to join the special forces going to Korea. He trained at Petawawa for a short time and then was shipped to Fort Lewis, Washington. He liked it there and it was easy to get home on leave. He seemed to like army life. He went to Korea in April, 1951 and was killed May 30th while evacuating wounded. Strachan Island (53 E/16) in Island Lake was named after this Korean War casualty in 1998.