CANTERBURY B. PIERCE, LT, USN
Canterbury Pierce '39
Lucky Bag
From the 1939 Lucky Bag:
CANTERBURY BROOKE PIERCE
Lexington, Massachusetts
Beans, Bill, Canabeer
Bill is a Marine Corps Junior, but well-liked in spite of it. Having no particular home, Bill took spoons from all states, but remains partial to Massachusetts and Virginia. Bill is noted for continually being in a storm, but when it clears away he's usually got his. He never talks before breakfast, but is effervescent the rest of the day. He never does things by halves, if he drags a brick, she's a real brick; if he bilges a P-work, he bilges it cold. However, all his time is not devoted to dragging bricks and bilging P-works; he finds time for swimming and track—and doesn't bilge them. Bill's ambition has always been to serve his rich Uncle Samuel, and we wish him all the luck he rates.
Track 4, 3; Battalion Swimming 3; Battalion Soccer 2; Language Club 3; Boat Club 3; Radio Club 3; 1 P.O.
CANTERBURY BROOKE PIERCE
Lexington, Massachusetts
Beans, Bill, Canabeer
Bill is a Marine Corps Junior, but well-liked in spite of it. Having no particular home, Bill took spoons from all states, but remains partial to Massachusetts and Virginia. Bill is noted for continually being in a storm, but when it clears away he's usually got his. He never talks before breakfast, but is effervescent the rest of the day. He never does things by halves, if he drags a brick, she's a real brick; if he bilges a P-work, he bilges it cold. However, all his time is not devoted to dragging bricks and bilging P-works; he finds time for swimming and track—and doesn't bilge them. Bill's ambition has always been to serve his rich Uncle Samuel, and we wish him all the luck he rates.
Track 4, 3; Battalion Swimming 3; Battalion Soccer 2; Language Club 3; Boat Club 3; Radio Club 3; 1 P.O.
Loss
Canterbury was lost when USS Scorpion (SS 278) was sunk sometime after January 5, 1944. He was executive officer of the boat.
Other Information
Unable to find a citation for the Bronze Star medal he was awarded.
From researcher Kathy Franz:
In 1933 at Western High School, Canterbury was a member of the “Cog,” an honor draftsmen’s society. He graduated in 1935 and then spent the month of June in Company C of the 5th Battalion, Fleet Marine Corps Reserve awaiting appointment to the Naval Academy.
In December 1942, Canterbury married Polly Day. After his death, she married his younger brother Harold Clifton, II, on November 2, 1946, in Paris. Harold had been a Marine Corps captain in the Pacific.
In 1935, their father Col. Harold Sr. was commanding officer of the Marine Base in Boston.
His wife was listed as next of kin.
Canterbury is remembered at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.
Wartime Service
He reported aboard USS Scorpion (SS 278) on September 27, 1943, before the boat's third war patrol. He was XO for the fourth and final patrol.
Photographs
From the Lucky Bag
The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.
The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.
The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.
Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.
October 1939
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