FLETCHER, George Edwin Pearce
| Service Number: | 3012 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 14 June 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 12th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Adelaide, South Australia, date not yet discovered |
| Home Town: | Adelaide, South Australia |
| Schooling: | Pulteney Grammar, Adelaide, , South Australia |
| Occupation: | Locomotive cleaner |
| Died: | Died of Wounds, Wadi Auja, Palestine, 20 July 1918, age not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Jerusalem War Cemetery |
| Memorials: | Adelaide National War Memorial, Adelaide Pulteney Grammar School WW1 & WW2 Honour Board, Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour |
World War 1 Service
| 14 Jun 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 3012, 12th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 14 Sep 1915: | Involvement Private, 3012, 12th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '10' embarkation_place: Adelaide embarkation_ship: HMAT Ballarat embarkation_ship_number: A70 public_note: '' | |
| 14 Sep 1915: | Embarked Private, 3012, 12th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ballarat, Adelaide |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
Barney Fletcher was born in 1895, the son of George Bailey Fletcher (1870-1920) and Elsie (née Dunstan, 1873-1943) of Semaphore: he was christened with the names ‘George Edwin Pearce’ but throughout his adult life he used ‘Ted’ or ‘Barney’. Barney was a 19-year-old fireman and locomotive cleaner with the South Australian Railways at the Mile-End railway yards when he enlisted in the AIF on 14 June 1915. He embarked with light horse reinforcements in Adelaide on 14 September 1915, and in Egypt joined ‘A’ Squadron of the Australian Composite Light Horse Regiment. He was promoted to Corporal, and served on active duty with ‘B’ Squadron of the 9th Australian Light Horse Regiment AIF with the Australian Mounted Division. Barney was severely wounded near Wadi Auja near Jericho, Palestine on 19 July 1918, and died of his wounds that same day, aged 22.
His father, 8 Warrant Officer 2nd Class George Bailey Fletcher served in the same unit as his son. George was the first in the circle of friends and family to enlist – at Morphettville Camp on 16 September 1914. He dropped his age by four years, from 44 to 40, and joined the 9th Light Horse Regiment AIF as their Farrier Quartermaster-Sergeant. George returned to Australia a few months after his son’s death, in December 1918, with the rank of Warrant Officer Class 2, but died at Semaphore on 4 August 1920, aged 50.
‘Barney’ Fletcher had a letter published in a Adelaide newspaper, under the heading, ‘Father and son fight side by side’.
“Corporal Barney Fletcher, of the 9th Light Horse, writes as follows to Councillor W. M. Winterbottom, of Thebarton, from Heliopolis: —I '"popped" one for you and a couple of others, too. We were in close grips with them, and we knew how many we killed, and how many we missed. On Christmas Day we must have done for over 1,000. I was the first South Australian to go into mounted action, all the others being New South Wales men. I have been transferred to the Light Horse with my dad, and on Christmas Day we were fighting side by side. A lad who was lying down I about two feet from me got a bullet right through the brain. He died immediately. I got through it all right, and I am now safe back on Heliopolis racecourse again.”
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