FITCH, Ernest Anthony
| Service Number: | 1747 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 30 December 1914, at Oaklands |
| Last Rank: | Sergeant |
| Last Unit: | 10th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | St. Helens, Jersey, June 1895 |
| Home Town: | Not yet discovered |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Labourer |
| Memorials: |
World War 1 Service
| 30 Dec 1914: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 1747, 10th Infantry Battalion, at Oaklands | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Apr 1915: | Involvement Private, 1747, 10th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '10' embarkation_place: Adelaide embarkation_ship: HMAT Port Lincoln embarkation_ship_number: A17 public_note: '' | |
| 1 Apr 1915: | Embarked Private, 1747, 10th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Port Lincoln, Adelaide | |
| 20 Feb 1916: | Promoted AIF WW1, Sergeant, 10th Infantry Battalion | |
| 23 Jul 1916: | Imprisoned Battle for Pozières |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by St Ignatius' College
Ernest Anthony Fitch was born around June 1895 in Saint Helens in Jersey. He was son to Mr and Ms Fitch, and they lived on 26 Sand Street. Their home was 800 metres away from a large wharf or dock, suggesting his father might have worked there while the mother looked after him. When he was older, he moved out to South Australia. Ernest worked as a labourer. This means he was physically fit and would’ve been a good fit for the army. He enlisted on the 30th of December 1914 at Oaklands, South Australia. At the time he was 19 and a half, single, had no children and was a part of the Church of England.
Fitch embarked the HMAT Port Lincoln A17, from Adelaide, which weighed 7,243t and had an average speed of 22.22km p/hour. Fitch was a private at first but, after arriing in Egypt in January 1916, was soon promoted to Corporal and then to Sergeant. Fitch was a part of the 10th battalion and was taken on strength on 7/1/16. The 10th Battalion went to France in April and, by late July, was fighting in the Battle of Pozières on the Somme.
On the 25th of July 1916 he was reported missing on action. Two days earlier he had been captured by the Germans in Poziers and was reported a prisoner of war on 2/8/16. Fitch was held in detention in Gefangenenlager, prisoner camp, Dulmen. Prisoners of war in WW1 were highly used to create propaganda. Countries would make other countries think their prisoners were being treated well but it couldn’t have been further from the truth. Germany wasn’t expecting a long war, so they didn’t build enough camps for their prisoners, which left the prisoners to build these camps, sleep in fields exposed and forced to do manual labour. Having so many people squished into such small camps, and these camps being very unsanitary, often epidemics like typhus would break out killing thousands of prisoners. In Gefangenenlager, life wasn’t good with numbers going from 250 prisoners to 30 in three months with most of them dying to starvation or sickness. Fitch tried to escape camp once but was caught in the process and was hospitalised for the injuries he got while doing so. Fitch was charged money twice for disobeying a command and leaving without permission for an entire day.
He was repatriated to England via the Netherlands at the end of the war and returned to Australia in early 1919. The details of his later life are not clear.