FORAN, Sarah Josephine
Age at Death: 22
Rank Leading Aircraftwoman
Unit Royal Canadian Air Force Women’s Division
Service Number W303937
Place of Burial Marymount Cemetery, Guelph ON
Date of Birth 1920.09.27
Place of Birth Guelph ON
Enlistment May 7, 1942, London ON
Date of Death 1943.06.30
Daughter of James Patrick and Catherine Breese, of Guelph
Sarah Josephine Breese was born and raised in Guelph, Ontario, with three brothers and two sisters. She attained a Grade 8 education and worked as a machine operator on an automatic lathe, as well as for the Federal Wire Company in Guelph. She married truck driver George Foran, but they had been separated for a year prior to her enlistment in May 1942.
After training at the School of Cookery in Guelph, she was assigned to the Bomb and Gunnery School in Paulson, Manitoba as a cook. In June 1942, she complained to a doctor of lower abdominal pain. Six months of observation found that the pain was associated with ovulation; she was hospitalized several times but was able to return to duty in between. An eventual examination found an ovarian tumour. She was operated on in June 1943, and died two weeks later of complications from the surgery. On her application she had listed her husband’s address as unknown, and he was never contacted about her death.
