Roy Laird served the entire duration of the Second World War overseas with the RCMP.  He had been with the Saskatchewan Light Infantry from July 1940 to October 1945, and fought in Italy, France, Holland and Germany.  While serving with the 1st Special Service task force under command of the American 5th Army, he was wounded at Anzio in Italy.

For his war service, he was awarded the 1939-1945 Star, the France and Germany Star, the Italy Star, the Canadian Volunteer Medal and Clasp and the 1939-1945 War Medal.  After the war, he was engaged with the RCMP in 1946 and was posted to Hamilton, Ontario, and then several posts in southern Alberta.  At the time of his death, he was in charge of the detachment at Manyberries, Alberta.

He died on the night of Friday, August 5, 1955, as the result of a non-collision car accident on the Ranchville Road some 36 miles south of Medicine Hat, Alberta.  The accident occurred around 9:30 pm on a night when the visibility was good and the road conditions were favourable.  On the way home to Manyberries, he apparently failed to negotiate a sharp curve in the road and rolled his police cruiser over an embankment into a slough bottom.  The car was totally wrecked, but a post-mortem on Cst. Laird showed he had very few injuries of any kind; he was not badly marked and had no broken bones or serious internal injuries.

Strangely enough, Cst. Laird died of asphyxiation.  When the police car came to rest in the ditch, it was lying on its left side.  Cst. Laird's arm was out the open window and it was pinned almost at the shoulder under the upper portion of the driver's door at the roof.  This held his head up against the interior roof and forced his face downward, so that his chin pressed against his chest with such pressure that his windpipe was closed off and he was unable to breathe.

Fairly soon after the accident happened, a passing farmer, Arthur Weiss, saw the police car's headlights shining from the south ditch of the road.  He stopped his car and ran to the scene of the crash.  When he saw how Cst. Laird was pinned he got some help immediately and they turned the car right-side-up.  But it was too late; the policeman was already dead.

Cst. Laird was survived by his widow, Ann, and their five year old son.  Since he had been born and raised in Saskatchewan, and because of his distinguished service as a soldier, it was entirely appropriate that he was buried with full military honours at the RCMP Cemetery in Regina.