(8 Jan. 1915-16 Sept. 1942), airman. (Jean-Paul Sabourin, J. Paul Sabourin, J. J. P. Sabourin; names found with and without hyphens) Born at St. Isidore-de-Prescott (St. Isidore), Ont. Parents: Léon-Xiste Sabourin (1880-1954), township clerk of South Plantagenet Township for 40 years, who also worked as a notary, and his wife Amélie (Amelia, Mélie) Farrell (1886-1962), from Pendleton, Ont. Jean-Paul Sabourin’s early schooling at St. Isidore was followed by seminary and the University of Ottawa (baccalauréat ès arts, 1937), commercial college and a translator’s course. He enlisted in the RCAF at Ottawa in the spring of 1940, and received his wings Jan. 1941. In Dec. 1941, he downed three enemy airplanes in one day in Libya. (Standard Freeholder, with portrait, & Glengarry News both 12 Dec. 1941) In the fall of 1942, he was reported killed. (GN 2 Oct. 1942) His death took place in combat in Egypt. He was not a Glengarrian, but the Glengarry News noted that his aunt Mrs J. Ernest Leduc formerly lived in Alexandria and that the young airman “has many friends here.” (GN 12 Dec. 1941) After his death he was awarded the D. F. C. Flight Lieutenant Jean-Paul Sabourin was buried at first near the place of his death but is buried now in El Alamein War Cemetery in Egypt. Three of his four sisters were nuns. Another sister, Madeleine, who never married, lived in St. Isidore and continued her father’s work as a notary.
Biog. sketch, portrait, in Jadis: l’histoire de St-Isidore de Prescott, ed. Benoit Lamoureux et al. (1974) 55-57 * biog. sketch by his sister Madeleine Sabourin (with his portrait) 1879-1979 Paroisse Saint-Isidore (1979?) 124-128 * Sabourin family gravestone, St. Isidore Cemetery * information from Commonwealth War Graves Commission * private information * Christopher Shores and Clive Williams, Aces High: the Fighter Aces of the British and Commonwealth Air Forces in World War II (London, 1966) 257-258: biog. sketch * to feature on mural, St. Isidore, Vankleek Hill Review 30 Aug. 2006