Fletcher, Private William

Service Highlights

  • Service Number: 126555
  • Born September 1, 1888 at Spring Mount, Peak Forest, Derbyshire, England.
  • Came to Canada in 1912, later made his home in St. Marys, Ontario.
  • Married Jennie Fletcher
  • Enlisted at St. Marys, Ontario on September 17, 1915.
  • Served with the 71st Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force.
  • Sailed overseas in April 1916 and later served in France.
  • Served with the 2nd Canadian Machine Gun Company in France.
  • Hospitalized in France with a right inguinal hernia in late 1916 and again evacuated sick in 1917 before returning to duty.
  • Discharged on May 25, 1919 following demobilization.
  • After the war, worked at the St. Marys Cement Company for many years.
  • Commemorated through the St. Marys Legion Veterans Banner Program.

A Life and Service Remembered

William Fletcher was born in England in 1888 and came to Canada in 1912, part of the generation that crossed the Atlantic in search of a new life before the First World War. He later settled in St. Marys, where he built a home and family.

When war came, Fletcher enlisted in St. Marys in September 1915 and joined the 71st Battalion. He went overseas the following spring and eventually served in France, where his record shows service with the 2nd Canadian Machine Gun Company. That placed him in one of the demanding support arms of the Canadian Corps, where machine gun crews played an important role in both defence and advancing operations.

His service overseas was not without hardship. The record shows he was hospitalized in France with a right inguinal hernia in late 1916 and was again evacuated sick in 1917 before returning to duty. Even with those interruptions, he remained in service through the final years of the war and was only discharged in May 1919 during the long process of demobilization.

After returning home, Fletcher resumed civilian life in St. Marys and worked at the St. Marys Cement Company for more than four decades. The family remembrance also notes the loss of two brothers, Frederick and James, during the war, a sorrow carried by many families of that generation.

Major Battles and Operations

  • Service with the 71st Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force
  • Overseas service in France
  • Service with the 2nd Canadian Machine Gun Company
    • The Somme, 1916
    • Vimy Ridge, 1917
    • Hill 70, 1917
    • Passchendaele, 1917
    • Amiens, 1918
    • Arras, 1918
    • Canal du Nord and Cambrai, 1918
    • Final Hundred Days operations leading to the end of the war in 1918.
  • Canadian Corps operations on the Western Front

Learn More

Royal Canadian Legion Military Service Recognition Book Volume IV
https://on.legion.ca/remembrance/military-service-recognition-book/msrb/

Canadian Great War Project
https://canadiangreatwarproject.com/person.php?pid=971781