Charles Edward Fisher

Born: 20 December 1894

Died: 14 September 1914

Rank and Regiment: Private 8969 in the 1st Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment

Resting Place: body unrecovered

Memorials: St Botolph’s Churchyard, Barford, United Kingdom and; La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre Memorial, Departement de Seine-et-Marne, Île-de-France, France

Charles was born on the 20th December 1894 in Fundenhall and was baptised there on the 13th August 1895. He was the son of Robert Horace Fisher, a horseman on a farm, and Ellen Martha Fisher (nee Goodrum). They had married in 1887 and Charles was one of nine children of whom two had died by the time of the 1911 Census. In that Census, Charles is recorded as being a strapping young 16-year-old man working as a cowman on a Barford farm. At the time he was living with his parents and his 3 younger siblings: Sarah (aged 11), James (aged 9) and William George (aged 6). His older sisters, Alice and Marion, though listed on the 1901 census, had presumably moved out of the family home. His elder brother, Robert, was a Private in the Coldstream Guards in Surrey.

Charles enlisted on 6th October 1913 in Wymondham. He is recorded as being extremely tall for the time standing at 5’11. He weighed a fairly healthy 152 lb (10 st 12 lb) and had blue eyes and brown hair.

Almost immediately, he was hospitalised with influenza in October 1913. In November he was admitted to hospital again with severe tonsillitis. He remained there for 15 days after which he resumed his training.

As a serving soldier, he was of course among the first to be posted to France upon the outbreak of the Great War, arriving in France on 14th August. At the time of his mobilisation, his unit was based in Curragh in Ireland. From here, his unit was deployed to Belgium and fought at the Battle of Mons.

On the 13th September 1914, at the Battle of Aisne, Charles’ unit are recorded as being part of the allied forces attempting to cross the Venizel Bridge. They were met with heavy German artillery fire and on the 14th September 1914, Charles was killed in action. He was just a few months shy of his 20th birthday. His body was never recovered but he is commemorated on the La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre Memorial in France and on the war memorial in Barford.

He left no traceable personal effects, leading his mother, Ellen, to write a heart-breaking letter on 23rd November 1914. She writes:

“Thank you for your communication… Sorry that you cannot trace any effects of my late son… I am sorry to trouble you but would you be so good as to write to the Barracks which he left to go to the War in the early part of August 1914 as I am told very likely he left some things there which he could not carry about with him…

I hope you will not mind me troubling you but I am anxious to have something that was his…”

This letter received the curt response: “There are no articles the property of late No 8969 C E Fisher at this Depot…”

On 29th March 1921, Ellen wrote to the army once again asking for her son’s medals. It appears from the letter that she had moved back to Fundenhall. On the 2nd November 1921, Ellen was sent Charles’ 1914-star medal. This award was given to members of the British Expeditionary Force who had fought in France and Belgium between the 5th August 1914 and midnight on the 22nd-23rd November 1914.