We regret to advise of the death of Lieutenant-Colonel Dudley Cyril Harry Francis, CD (Ret’d) of Parksville, BC at the Nanaimo Regional General Hospital in Nanaimo, BC on 5 May 2000 at the age of 73 years. He was a veteran of both the Second World War and Korean War.
Dudley was born in Whitewood, SK. At the age of 15 years, he enrolled as a Boy Soldier in the 101st Field Battery, Royal Canadian Artillery in 1942. On demobilization in 1945, he enrolled in the University of Saskatchewan and was commissioned into the Canadian Army in 1948. He graduated in 1949 with a degree in Civil Engineering.
Dudley's career in the Royal Canadian Engineers included a tour in Korea. He retired in 1981 after a series of postings that included the Royal Canadian School of Military Engineering at Camp Chilliwack, BC in 1952; the Royal School of Military Engineering in Chatham (UK) in 1955, the Army Technical Staff Course in Shivenham (UK) in 1959; National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa on four separate occasions; and Canadian Defence Liaison Staff in Washington, DC in 1972. He also served in Winnipeg and Montreal and, for his final assignment, Dudley was the Base Technical Service Officer in Chilliwack (1979 - 81)
A service will be held at 2:00 PM on 9 May in Parksville, BC. A memorial tree at the Parksville Funeral Chapel Cemetery will be dedicated with a plaque in his honour. The family requests no flowers, in lieu of which donations may be made to the Canadian Cancer Society.
