Charles Joseph Fletcher
Father of William George Fletcher
Born:
29 Dec 1894 Tambo, Queensland, Australia
Married:
23 Feb 1927 Holy Trinity Church, Bowen, Queensland, Australia to Mildred Edmonds
Died:
7 Aug 1941 Alexandria, Egypt. Age 46
Cause of death:
Died of wounds sustained in battle at Tobruk, Libya
Buried:
8 Aug 1941 British War Cemetery, Alexandria, Egypt. Later moved to Grave No. 3, Plot 2, Row C Alexandria (Hadra) War Memorial Cemetery, Alexandria, Egypt
Timeline
Dec 1894
1903-1909
1910
1910-1914
1916
1916-1919
1921-1922
1923
1925
Feb 1927
Sep 1927
1928-1930
1932-1934
1936-1937
1939
1940-1941
May 1941
Aug 1941
Born on Edward Street, Tambo, Queensland [1]
Lived with grandparents at Ashburton, Queensland [4]
Lived with grandparents at Farleigh and worked as a labourer [8]
Served in Australian Imperial Force 21st Machine Gun Company in France and Belgium. Served as a Driver. Rank of Private [8]
Lived at Bowen. Selling firewood with half-brothers Vivian and Thomas Beasley, under business name of "Messrs. Fletcher Beasley Bros" [11]
Lived at Macknade and worked as a labourer [12]
Married Mildred Edmonds. Lived at Powell St, Bowen, Queensland and worked as a labourer [13]
Lived at Mia Mia via Mirani and worked as a labourer [14]
Lived at McIntyre Street, Mackay and worked as a labourer [21]
Served in Australia Imperial Force 2/12th Infantry Battalion in Egypt and Libya. Served as batman to Lieut. (later Capt.) Harvie. Rank of Private [22] [23, 23a]
Sustained wounds as part of action against German army in Tobruk, Libya. Transported to Alexandria [22]
Died of wounds at General Hospital, Alexandria [24]
Biography
Early years
For a more detailed story of Charlie Fletcher, you can read the book I wrote on his life, The Fletcher Family: Story of our Origins.
Charles Joseph Fletcher ("Charlie") was born Charles Joseph Legg on 29th December 1894 in Tambo. Known as Charlie, from his earliest years he had been raised by his grandmother Lena Ivory and her second husband George Albert Fletcher. Charlie called Lena "mum" [1] [25].
Charlie's birth mother was Lena's daughter, Elizabeth. By 1898, she was married to Charles Thomas Beasley [26]. At the time of their marriage, Beasley had no desire for Charlie to be around and Lena was adamant that Charlie stay with her, so Charlie remained with his grandparents [25].
Charlie and his grandparents moved to the Toliness grazing farm where George worked as a labourer from at least 1903 [2]. Afterwards, the family settled onto a farm in Farleigh, QLD, specifically the Coningsby area, from around 1910, when Charlies was 16 years old [5] [6]. Farleigh and Coningsby were old sugar plantations that had been subdivided into smaller cane farms to be worked by small-scale farmers, so the farm they had would have been a sugar cane farm.
Charlie integrated into the local community and was a member of the Farleigh Social Club [5].
Farleigh, early 1900s
World War I service
After the declaration of war by Great Britain (and subsequently Australia) in 1914, recruitment for soldiers began in Australia. We know that Charlie attended a recruitment drive at Mackay on the evening of 22nd January 1916 [27]. On 20th March 1916, Charlie enlisted at the Central Recruiting Depot in Rockhampton, aged 21 years. Upon enlistment, he was recorded as being 5 ft 7 ¾ in tall, 58 kg (9 st 2lb), with dark complexion, dark brown hair and hazel eyes [8].
The Farleigh Social Club gave him and another Farleigh recruit a send-off on 22nd March and Charlie was given an inscribed silver fountain pen. Charlie's demeanour at the send-off was described as “manifestly shy before an audience which included many pretty girls” [5].
Charlie completed basic training at the Enoggera Barracks in Brisbane and then, after his assignment to the 21st Machine Gun Company, he was transported to Seymour, Victoria for specialist training at the Machine Gun Depot there. He departed for England aboard the HMAT Commonwealth on 19th September 1916, which arrived in Plymouth in November. While sailing, he was twice admitted to the ship's hospital for a bad knee caused by an inflamed joint (synovitis) [8].
Upon arrival in the UK, Charlie was posted to the Machine Gun Training Depot at Grantham, where the British trained their own machine gun troops. He continued training until his unit was called to the front. They departed for France on 17th March 1917 [8].
By the time of Charlie's arrival, the Germans had already built the Hindenburg line and begun their strategic retreat behind the line to take up defensive positions. Charlie's unit was marched towards Bullecourt where they participated in the First Battle of Bullecourt [8] [28].
Only weeks later, the unit came under heavy enemy shelling in the Second Battle of Bullecourt, with the Germans using gas shells in the bombardment and a drumfire artillery barrage [29].
Following the Second Battle of Bullecourt, Charlie's unit was pulled off the front line to recuperate. In September 1917, they were posted back to the front line in Belgium and were involved in the Third Battle of Ypres, otherwise known as the Battle of Passchendaele. Following the Battle, the unit was taken off the front line and posted to billets in France. However, they were soon back in Belgium where they spent the winter, generally working at night by targeting strategic German positions with gunfire [30] [31] [32] [33].
22nd Machine Gun Battalion resting along sunken roadin preparation for 2nd Battle of Bullecourt, 1917
While in Belgium, Charlie wrote a postcard to his half sister Dorothy Beasley (known as Dorrie) in February 2018. Only two days after his postcard was dated, Charlie reported to a medical field post with a pain in his left knee. It was initially diagnosed as a recurrence of synovitis but the pain worsened and he developed fever. The medical doctors diagnosed him with trench fever [8].
Trench fever typically presented with a headache, dizziness, a feeling of stiffness down the front of the thighs, severe pain in the legs and, most characteristically, a sudden high fever that would typically last for 5 days and which the patient would relapse with again and again. It affected large numbers of soldiers and it was discovered that it was a bacterial infection transmitted through body lice, a sign of the terrible conditions soldiers experienced in the trenches.
Charlie was transported to the No. 24 General Hospital in Étaples, France where he received treatment over a number of months. He wouldn't return to his unit in the field until April 1918 [8]. By the time he arrived, his unit had been incorporated into the 1st Machine Gun Battalion as part of a new battalion formation and, following the German spring offensive, the unit was posted to Hazebrouck, where Charlie re-joined his unit [8].
Charlie and his unit participated in the Battle of Hazebrouck (also known as the Battle of Lys), where they experienced multiple artillery barrages, intensifying into drum fire at points [28] [29].
In August 1917, Charlie and his unit were relieved from the front line and Charlie was granted 3-weeks furlough in England. Four days after he re-joined his unit he was admitted into a Casual Clearing Session with a case of urethritis as the result of gonorrhoea. Venereal disease, not commonly talked about, was a significant problem amongst the troops that the army grappled with throughout the War. Charlie was shipped back to the General Hospital in Étaples, France where he spent 97 days in treatment [8].
By the time Charlie had finished his treatment and recovery, the Allies had broken through the German front line during the Second Battle of the Somme. The Allies pressed forward and broke the Hindenburg Line, forcing the collapse of German High Command [34].
Charlie was demobilised back to Australia on the Boonah arriving in Australia on 11th June 1919 [8]. He returned home to Farleigh - he was not long home before his beloved mum Lena died of Spanish Flu, causing pneumonia and heart failure [35].
21st Machine Gun Company at Hazebrouck, 16 April 1918 (Battle of Lys)
Interwar period
Following Lena's death, her husband George returned to his family in the UK [36]. Charlie worked as a labourer, which would have included cane cutting and seasonal work in the sugar mills, who were a major employer in the area. In 1925, Charlie was working as a labourer in Macknade, a town near Ingham based around the Macknade sugar mill [12]. He also briefly went into business with his half-brothers, Vivian ("Viv"), Thomas and Bertie Beasley (trading as "Beasley Bros."), selling firewood [11]. They sold from a wood depot they operated, which Charlie invested some money into. However, Charlie allegedly had a row with his step-father, Charles Thomas Beasley in relation to it, which Beasley denied, and it seems Charlie only involved himself in the business for no more than a year [37, 37a].
Canecutters at Innisfail, 1923
Charlie became engaged to Frances Dingley of north Mackay, the daughter of Ethel Dingley, but the relationship did not work out [25].
On 23rd February 1927, aged 32 years, Charlie married Mildred Edmonds ("Milly") at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Bowen [13]. The pair had met in Mackay [38] and Milly (as she was known) was two months pregnant with their first child at the time. She was 20 years old and a native of Bowen, the daughter of William Spencer Edmonds ("Wingy") and Chrisop Morris ("Crissy Gundy"). The family moved to Mia Mia, a small township almost 45 km (30 mi) west of Mackay [14]. It's likely Charlie was there for work - the area was a large sugar cane growing area that needed labourers for cutting and crushing.
Holy Trinity Church, Bowen c1874
Charlie and Milly had four children - two sons and two daughters. They lived in and around Mackay. Their eldest son, William George (known as George) remembered their home on Holland Street, Mackay, which was one of two houses provided as accommodation for cane cutters, which was the work Charlie did when in season. It was only a small place and the family stayed there briefly, while Charlie worked cutting cane. They then moved to Town Beach on Mackay beach. It was an older home but comfortable. It had only one bedroom - as George remembered it, it had one bed at one end of the room, and George slept at the other end of the room [38].
Outside of cane cutting season, Charlie would find other work such as working on the railway line or cutting wood. He also worked as a fugal man/fugler at Farleigh Mill. These men worked at the centrifugal machine, which was part of the sugar refining process [38] [25].
Charlie was an adaptable, industrious man who would learn quickly and could turn his hand to anything. George remembered a bath tub that Charlie made for the family, using salvaged galvanised iron sheets. Charlie collected the sheets and soldered them together to make the tub. It wasn't only heavy construction he could put his hand to. He developed his own photos and also did "fancy work", including embroidery [38]. His daughter-in-law remembered a beautiful embroidered blanket that he made and he submitted two cushion covers which he had made and decorated with raised woollen work, into the needlework section at the Mackay Show. Though they didn't win a prize, they did win high praise from the judges [25] [39].
Charlie kept a small veggie patch in the family's backyard, growing things such as lettuces. The veggie patch and a small flock of chickens were looked after by George while Charlie was away working – he had an old Harley Davidson with a side car that he would use to get around in and he would typically leave home to work for the week, then come home on the weekend. On weekends, Charlie would change the paper out of the bottom of their hanging meat safe and add water to the bottom, to keep the meat cool. He would also chop all the wood the family would need for the following week. It would be George's chore to put the wood under the harbour tank to keep it dry [38].
Charlie loved to watch a storm roll in and he was always involved in the local militia. Proud of his military service, he would attend the ANZAC Day parades each year, taking his eldest son with him to the Mackay ANZAC Day Parade in 1935 (along with his brother-in-law Robert Salsbury, husband of his half-sister, Penelope Beasley) [38].
ANZAC Day Parade in Mackay, c1920-1930
There were cracks in Charlie's marriage to Milly - Charlie was a fastidious man, whereas Milly was untidy. Things like changing the paper in the hanging meat safe was something Charlie would do every weekend and he would be frustrated that the same paper was still there the following weekend, unchanged. A deeper crack was Charlie's doubt that Milly was faithful to him. After the birth of their youngest daughter, Charlie came to the belief that she was not his natural daughter. The couple had a blazing row at Town Beach over this, which ended in Charlie raising his hand to Milly and slapping her hard enough to hit the ground, before taking off in fury. Milly packed herself and the children up immediately, got on a train and headed to Collinsville, where her parents were then living [38] [25].
Their marriage never recovered. The following year, 1939, war was declared again on Germany and Australia joined the Allied war effort. Charlie enlisted at Rockhampton on 9th June 1940, aged 45. Because of his age, he lied about his age and gave his year of birth as 1905 rather than 1895 [20]. Before he left Mackay for war, he sent a letter to Rose Beasley, the wife of his half-brother John ("Jack"). Charlie had known Rose growing up and he invited her to visit him for a cup of tea and a chat. Rose brought her 6-year-old daughter Veronica with her to meet "uncle Charlie". During the visit, Charlie told Rose that he was leaving Mackay very soon as he had re-joined the army. Veronica remembered Charlie looking very sad and telling her mother that he didn’t know if he was coming back from this one (the war) but it didn’t matter. After an emotional goodbye, Charlie left for the war two days later [25].
World War 2 service and death
Charlie was transferred to the Eastern Command based in Sydney in preparation for deployment to the Middle East. On the 27th December 1940, just two days before his 46th birthday, Charlie departed for war on HMT K10 (Natal San) from Sydney harbour [22].
The troopship arrived in Egypt a little over a month later on 1st February 1941. Upon arrival, he spent time in Alexandria, visiting the British War Cemetery there, where he had a photos of himself outside the cemetery and holding a "Palestine black snake".
Charlie Fletcher holding a Palestine black snack at the British War Cemetery, Alexandria, 1941
On 4th February 1941, Charlie was marched into the Australian training camp (Middle East Weapons Training School – M.E.W.T.S.) at Beit Jirja, Palestine, now in southern Israel. After a month of training, he and his unit - the 2/12th infantry battalion - was marched out to a staging camp to be deployed to Libya. Charlie was assigned as a "batman" to Lieutenant (later Captain) Thomas Goodman Adrian Harvie. They seemed to get along well - Harvie took a photo of a grinning Charlie and wrote on the back of the photo "the best batman ever" [22] [23, 23a].
Beit Jirja Australia training camp, Palestine, Oct 1940 [colourised]
Last known photo taken of Charlie by Capt. Harvie, 1941
The 2/12th were amongst of selection of battalions sent to Tobruk, Libya to assist in the defence of its strategically important port, which was the only deep water port in Libya. The units were soon under siege by the Germans and the Australians dug in, to hold the port no matter what it took. On the morning of 3rd May 1941 the 2/12th were given orders to to undertake an attack against the Germans that evening. The object of the attack was to recapture the portion of the outer perimeter of Tobruk in possession by the Germans. The attack by the 2/12th was to be conducted simultaneously with one by the 2/9th Battalion, who were to recapture another portion of the perimeter [22] [40].
At 5.30pm, Charlie and his battalion gathered at the rendezvous point, a wadi 300 yard east of a landmark fig tree that gave its name to the nearby Fig Tree Road. However, upon arrival, they found the whole area was under observation by Germans to the west and the area was immediately shelled and they were forced to abandon their position under the mortar and shell fire. They removed to a wadi to the rear of their position and, over the next two hours, were under constant shelling from a battery of 75mm guns [40].
As the night drew in, visibility was poor as the sky was slightly overcast and there was only a waxing quarter moon. At Zero Hour, 8.45pm, the Allied artillery barrage against the Germans commenced, and the 2/12th advanced towards enemy position, during a planned pause in the barrage. However, despite the artillery attack, the 2/12th still came under a considerable volume of light machine gun fire from the enemy, as well as some well-directed mortar fire, with the Germans making frequent use of illuminating flares [40].
The intense fire from the German combatants means the Battalion could not easily press forward or move to the flanks. The darkness and flatness of terrain made identification of their localities difficult, and the German use of illuminating flares and green-colour light signals confused the soldiers, many of whom believed the lights to be the pre-arranged signal for indicating the forward position of the Battalion's own troops [40].
It soon became clear that the Australian artillery barrage had not been effective in neutralising the targeted German posts and that other enemy localities, deep outside the perimeter, and who were also outside the concentration of artillery fire, were giving the most trouble. There was rampant confusion amongst the Australian troops, lost in the darkness and under a constant barrage. The number of casualties and wounded on the Australian side mounted, with Charlie amongst them. At 3am, the attack was called off and the Battalion ordered to return to its original position, which was completed by 6am [40].
That afternoon, an accounting of the casualties and injuries was undertaken. The Battalion had lost one of its captains and another officer, as well as had a number of injuries amongst the rank-and-file. Charlie himself had come under fire and suffered a gunshot wound to his buttock [40] [22].
He was moved to the 4th Australian General Hospital on the 4th of May 1941 and then, on the 17th May, he was evacuated to the 64th British General Hospital in Alexandria, Egypt [22].
On the 19th of May, the Daily Mercury - Mackay's local paper - reported that Charlie had been wounded in action and, in June, it reported him as being seriously ill. A telegram by the army was sent to Mrs Zena Harney, the woman he listed as his friend and next-of-kin on his enlistment papers, notifying her of the injury on the 22nd of May [40] [41] [22].
After three months at the General Hospital in Alexandria, Charlie died of his wounds on the 7th August 1941. The following day, he was buried at the British War Cemetery in Alexandria. Mrs Harney was notified by the Army of the death on 12th August 1941 and the Daily Mercury subsequently ran Charlie's obituary [43] [24] [22].
Charlie's Beasley brothers and sisters ran a message of thanks to the Mackay community for the well wishes sent to the by the Mackay community [44].
The following year, still in her thoughts, Mrs Harney posted a memoriam from her and her family [45]. This was also the year that Charlie's burial site was moved to the Hadra War Cemetery in Alexandria, with his other fellow Australian soldiers and to his final resting spot of Grave No. 3, Plot 2, Row C [22].
Alexandria (Hadra) War Memorial Cemetery
Source information
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Queensland Birth Certificate, Charles Joseph Legg, 29 Dec 1894, Record no: 11050/242, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]
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George Albert Fletcher, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, Division of Maranoa, Subdivision of Tambo, 1903, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]. Location of father is used as a proxy for location of Charlie, as he was a minor at the time.
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George Albert Fletcher, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, Division of Maranoa, Subdivision of Tambo, 1909, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]. Location of father is used as a proxy for location of Charlie, as he was a minor at the time.
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George Albert Fletcher, Australia Electoral Rolls, Division of Mackay, 1910, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]. Location of father is used as a proxy for location of Charlie, as he was a minor at the time.
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Farleigh, Daily Mercury, Tue 28 Mar 1916, page 3, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]. This refers to a send-off to war that Charlie received in 1916 and mentioned he had been in Farleigh for 6 years, putting approximate arrival as 1910.
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George Albert Fletcher, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, Division of Herbert, Subdivision of Mackay, 1912, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]. Location of father is used as a proxy for location of Charlie, as he was a minor at the time.
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George Albert Fletcher, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, Division of Herbert, Subdivision of Mackay, 1914, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]. Location of father is used as a proxy for location of Charlie, as he was a minor at the time.
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Pte. Charles Joseph Fletcher, AIF Military Service Record, 1916, Service no: 375, Series no: B2455, National Archives of Australia [naa.gov.au]
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Charles Joseph Fletcher, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, Division of Herbert, Subdivision of Mackay, 1921, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
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Charles Joseph Fletcher, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, Division of Herbert, Subdivision of Mackay, 1922, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]. Original record not available - only a transcription.
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[Advertisement] Firewood, Bowen Independent, 2 Jun 1923, page 5, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]. The same advertisement also ran on 1 May 1923 and 7 July 1923 in the Bowen Independent.
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Charles Joseph Fletcher, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, Division of Herbert, Subdivision of Ingham, 1925, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
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Queensland Marriage Certificate, Charles Joseph Fletcher and Mildred Edmonds, 23 Feb 1927, Record no: 1927/36, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]
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Queensland Birth Certificate, William George Fletcher, 1927, Record no: 11811/20909, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]
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Charles Joseph Fletcher, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, Division of Herbert, Subdivision of Mackay, 1928, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
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Charles Joseph Fletcher, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, Division of Herbert, Subdivision of Mackay, 1930, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
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Charles Joseph Fletcher, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, Division of Herbert, Subdivision of Mackay, 1932, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
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Charles Joseph Fletcher, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, Division of Herbert, Subdivision of Mackay, 1934, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
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Charles Joseph Fletcher, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, Division of Herbert, Subdivision of Mackay, 1936, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
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Charles Joseph Fletcher, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, Division of Herbert, Subdivision of Mackay, 1937, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
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Charles Joseph Fletcher, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903-1980, Division of Herbert, Subdivision of Mackay, 1939, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]
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Pte. Charles Joseph Fletcher, AIF Military Service Record, 1940, Service no: QX8249, Series no: B883, National Archives of Australia [naa.gov.au]
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Photo of Charles Joseph Fletcher, taken by Captain Thomas Harvie in the field, National Archives of Australia [naa.gov.au]. Original photo held by Captain Harvie's son, Adrian. Adrian states that Harvie wrote on the back of the photo the words “the best batman ever”. See comment by Adrian Robyn Harvie, Capt. Harvie's son: https://www.facebook.com/212thBtnAif/photos/1227020264155842
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Queensland Death Certificate, Charles Joseph Fletcher, 7 Aug 1941, Record no: 1941/249, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]
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Conversation with Veronica Beasley, daughter-in-law of Charlie Fletcher
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Queensland Marriage Certificate, Chester Alfred Beasley and Elizabeth Legg, 9 May 1898, Record no: 1898/C/1978, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]. This was a bigamous marriage for Charles Thomas Beasley, which is likely why he gave his name as “Chester Alfred Beasley”.
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Recruitment meeting, Daily Mercury, Tue 25 Jan 1916, page 7, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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April 1917, 21st Australian Machine Gun Company Unit Diary, AWM4, Item no: 24/21/4, Australian War Memorial [www.awm.gov.au]
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May 1917, 21st Australian Machine Gun Company Unit Diary, AWM4, Item no: 24/21/5, Australian War Memorial [www.awm.gov.au]
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Sep 1917, 21st Australian Machine Gun Company Unit Diary, AWM4, Item no: 24/21/9, Australian War Memorial [www.awm.gov.au]
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Oct 1917, 21st Australian Machine Gun Company Unit Diary, AWM4, Item no: 24/21/10, Australian War Memorial [www.awm.gov.au]
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Nov 1917, 21st Australian Machine Gun Company Unit Diary, AWM4, Item no: 24/21/11, Australian War Memorial [www.awm.gov.au]
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Dec 1917, 21st Australian Machine Gun Company Unit Diary, AWM4, Item no: 24/21/12, Australian War Memorial [www.awm.gov.au]
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Hundred Days Offensive, Wikipedia, Last edited 30 Oct 2021 [en.wikipedia.org]
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Queensland Death Certificate, Eleanor Fletcher, 3 Jul 1919, Record no: 1919/C/4108, QLD Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages [www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au]
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George Albert Fletcher [1921], Census return for Cromartie Rd, Islington, Middlesex, The National Archives of the UK, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
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Summons Court and Summons Court (continued from other page), Bowen Independent, Sat 22 Nov 1924, pages 6 and 3, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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Conversation with William George Fletcher, son of Charlie Fletcher
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Untitled article, Daily Mercury, Wed 3 Jul 1940, page 4, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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April-May 1941, 2/12th Infantry Battalion Unit Diary, AWM52, Item no: 8/3/12, Australian War Memorial [www.awm.gov.au]
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Local and General: Mackay Boy Wounded, Daily Mercury, Mon 19 May 1941, page 4, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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Personal, Daily Mercury, Mon 16 Jun 1941, page 4, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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Obituary: Private C.J. Fletcher, Daily Mercury, Wed 13 Aug 1941, page 4, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
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Family Notices: Thanks, Daily Mercury, Sat 6 Sep 1941, page 6, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au
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Family Notices: In Memoriam, Daily Mercury, Fri 7 Aug 1942, page 2, National Library of Australia [trove.nla.gov.au]
Personal map
Map of places from Charlie's life
