Private George Fletcher

Private George Alexander Fletcher, 1st/7th ( Territorial) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. He died at Home from wounds, aged 22, on the 7th May 1915 and is buried in Eastlands Cemetery, Galashiels. He had been born in Pathhead, Midlothian and was the son of Georgina and the late James Fletcher of 72 High Street, Galashiels. He had been working as an ironmonger in Alnwick when he enlisted and landed in France with the Battalion in April 1915. It is likely he was wounded in the Battalion’s first action near St Julien in Belgium which caused very heavy casualties. After the War an impressive Memorial was raised in Commemoration of the Northumbrian Division of which the Battalion was part. It was erected bear the village of Weiltje in the Ypres Salient not far from the action on the 26th April only 4 days after landing on the Continent.