BEGIN, Mariette Francoise Yolande Claire
Age at Death: 22
Rank Leading Aircraftwoman
Unit Royal Canadian Air Force Women’s Division
Service Number W301555
Place of Burial St. Charles Cemetery, Quebec City PQ
Date of Birth 1922.08.01
Place of Birth Quebec City PQ
Enlistment September 13, 1942, Quebec City PQ
Date of Death 1945.05.14
Daughter of Louis Henri and Berthe Begin, of Quebec City Sister of Leading Aircraftman Joseph Henri Paul Rogers Begin, also died in service on October 28, 1944
Daughter of Louis Henri and Berthe Begin, of Quebec City Sister of Leading Aircraftman Joseph Henri Paul Rogers Begin, also died in service on October 28, 1944
Mariette was born and raised in Quebec City, growing up with seven sisters and one brother (a soldier who also died during the war, in an accident while off duty in England). She suffered from poor health as a child, with bouts of jaundice, appendicitis, whooping cough and measles. Enlisting in August 1942, she was described enthusiastically: “Intelligent, good education and plenty of grit and backbone, keen and neat, sincere and earnest, excellent subject.”
While employed as a cook in an aircraft barracks in Ottawa, Mariette lost the tip of her finger in a dicing machine in April 1944. In December of the same year, she was riding in a car in Montreal which rear-ended a mail truck. Admitted to the hospital and diagnosed with a compound fracture, she received treatment over nearly four months. In May of 1945, she died of sepsis after complications from the operation.
