Edgar Fletcher

Submitted by Mt Kembla Minin... on Mon, 12/10/2015 - 11:09

First Name:

Edgar

Last Name:

Fletcher

Date of Birth:

Sunday, October 4, 1891

Mother's Name:

Jessie Fletcher (nee MacDonald)

Father's Name:

Abram Fletcher

Date Enlisted:

Friday, March 19, 1915

Rank at Enlistment:

Private

Rank at Discharge:

Private

Unit:

20th Battalion

Company:

Service:

Infantry

Awards:

1914/1915 Star

British War Medal

Victory Medal

Date of Death:

Sunday, March 5, 1967

Place of Death:

Concord Hospital, Sydney

Details:

Edgar Fletcher (Service No 542) was born in Wollongong, N.S.W.

Edgar was one of six brothers to enlist and enlisted soon after his brother Donald. Edgar was single, 23 years old, and working as a miner at this time, and had served 12 months in the Militia.

He embarked from Sydney on board HMAT A35 Berrima with 13th Reinforcements, 20th Battalion, on 25th June 1915. After arriving in Egypt he was sent on to Gallipoli.

On 13th November 1915 he was admitted to hospital on the Gallipoli Peninsula, but returned to the front line the next day; no reason is recorded on his National Archives of Australia (NAA) file for his hospitalisation.

Edgar's file is short on detail and the next entry records that he was wounded in action on 5th May 1916, suffering from shell shock, and that he was returned to his Unit the next day.

On 29th July 1916 he was again wounded in action receiving a gun shot wound to his right forearm. He was evacuated to hospital in England on 2nd August 1916. The wound was serious and he was returned to Australia in March 1917 and discharged medically unfit on 8th June 1917.

In 1918 he married Sirbell May.

Edgar died in Concord Hospital, Sydney, in 1967.

Sources:

NAA: B2455, FLETCHER E