LABBE, Diane Rita
Age at Death: 20
Rank Private
Unit Canadian Women’s Army Corps
Service Number W5104
Place of Burial St. Charles Cemetery, Quebec City PQ
Date of Birth 1922.09.15
Place of Birth Quebec City PQ
Enlistment April 27, 1942, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue PQ
Date of Death 1943.07.04
Daughter Romeo and Julia Labbe, of Quebec City
Private Labbe, known by her middle name Rita, grew up with four brothers and five sisters. She had completed Grade 5 and worked as a hairdresser and server. Upon enlistment, she worked as a waitress at the Cove Fields Mess in Quebec City.
After several hospitalizations, she was diagnosed with tuberculosis and discharged as medically unfit in November 1942. She died the following July in her parents’ home.
In 1946, her mother wrote to the CWAC asking for help with expenses for her daughter’s tombstone, since her husband had died and she lacked the income to pay for it. She received a reply stating that the military does not pay for tombstones, but inviting her to apply for compensation for funeral expenses. Her reply is unknown. The form her mother filled out lists Rita’s birth date as three years later than Rita had indicated on her attestation forms, indicating that she had exaggerated her age and was only 17 when she joined the service.
