Clarence G Fisher

Courtesy of Anne Marie Cormier

Today I write about a boy who went to France during WWI and returned a man irrevocably changed.

Clarence Gray Fisher was the son of Samuel Fisher and Mary Gray ('Grandma' - Rebecca Gray Whidden was Mary's younger sister).  

Clarence was born in 1897 at Westville, Nova Scotia and was a steam engineer for the railroad.

Just shy of his 19th birthday, Clarence enlisted. 


During my research into this Fisher clan, I stumbled across a submission on The Olive Tree that allowed me to peek into the past and give life to the face in the picture below.  

The information was from Elizabeth Fisher Tambeau, the daughter of Clarence's younger brother John.

She wrote that the soldiers from Pictou were sent to Lower Dibgate, England for training and that Clarence transferred from the 106th to the 87th Canadian Infantry.  

At a battle at Vimy Ridge, he was injured and had gotten buried alive for a while as a result of a shell explosion near him. Hit in the back and suffering from a hand wound, he landed in a hospital at Paschendale for the last year of the war.  The shrapnel contributed to his death in 1941 and his disabilities reduced him to light work but more often than not he was unemployed.

courtesy of Anne Marie Cormier

Also, she shared a letter written by the young man who had already experienced a lot since he left home in February of 1916....

Somewhere in France
June 18, 1917

Dear Mother,

I rec'd your parcel and two bundles of papers today and one letter today and one yesterday. I hope what that fellow says about the war is true.Yes I was in that battle you were asking me about. I was one of the lucky ones. What that fellow says about Raymond DeCoste is about right as far as what I heard. He was coming down a communication trench and a" Whizz Bang " landed pretty handy to him and a piece of shell casing hit him on the hip. He said he had a good " Blighty " and did not think he was hurt bad but he died the next day.

I was out about two miles today to the gas school to get a gas mask. As it was so warm I went in my shirt sleeves. I was just coming back when it started to rain and thunder all in about a minute when the sun was out as bright as a silver dollar.

I was over to see some of the 106th boys. I saw quite a few of them and some other boys from Westville. I saw Sergt-Major Jollymore and Sergt. Dan Adamson. I also saw Dannie Corrigan, Edgar Murray and a Morrison of Westville. I got a letter from Sergt. H. MacKenzie about two months ago saying he was coming to France. I answered it but did not get a reply and I wondered what was the reason as he always wrote regular. They told me that he was killed just after he came to France.

I will close now with love to all from your ever loving son,

Clarence.

P.S. Would you mind sending me a thin sweater with short arms in it.They are the clear thing for here. The cigarettes were good and glad to get them. Am receiving all my parcels, now.

C.G.F.

Fisher Pictures