Private Ernest Henry Fisher , 1st Battalion
Australian War MemorialErnest Henry Fisher was born in Ascot in Central Victoria on 29 May 1894. He was adopted when he was an infant by John Fisher and Christina Fisher of Sebastopol, Ballarat. His parents already had four sons, all of whom were in their twenties when Ernest was adopted. He grew up in Ballarat and attended Mount Blowhard School.
As a teenager, Ernest worked as a tram conductor for the Ballarat Electric Tramway Company. In 1913, he was arrested and charged with embezzling four shillings from his employers, but case was dropped for lack of evidence. Soon afterwards, he relocated to Kiama, on the Illawarra coast of New South Wales, to work as a labourer at the state quarries.
Ernest enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 29 November 1915 in Nowra, New South Wales. He joined the Waratah recruitment march the next day, travelling to Sydney with many of his co-workers from the quarries. He was assigned to the 16th Reinforcements of the 1st Infantry Battalion with the rank of private, and began training at camp in Liverpool. Private Fisher departed Sydney on 1 April 1916 on the transport ship Makarini, and arrived at Marseilles in France on 17 May.
There, Ernest joined the Australian Division Base Depot at Etaples, and continued training for service at the front. He left on 16 June, and joined the 1st Battalion on the front line at Fleurbaix on the 18th of June. Ernest stayed on the front line until 23 June, when the 1st Battalion was relieved and posted behind the lines. After leaving the front line, the 1st Battalion provided close support at Fleurbaix until 4 July. They then travelled from the north of France via Bailleul to the Somme region to support the offensive taking place there. On 19 July, Ernest and his battalion arrived in Contalmaison, ready to participate in the allied offensive outside the French village of Pozieres.
British units in the area had attempted to capture the village, or force the Germans back from their defensive position, throughout the opening weeks of July 1916, but each offensive had been costly and unsuccessful. As a result, a major allied offensive was launched just after midnight on 23 July. The battle lasted for 42 days, with the allies launching 19 separate attacks against German positions in and around Pozieres. The Australian units involved sustained heavily casualties. In the first 36 hours of the offensive, the 1st Battalion suffered 276 casualties. One of these was Ernest Fisher.
On 23 July, while seizing control of the German trenches outside Pozieres, Ernest Fisher was hit by shrapnel in his arms, thigh, and back. He was admitted to the Number 1 Field Ambulance on the same day, before being transferred to the 6th Motor Ambulance Convoy and then to the Number 3 Casualty Clearing Station. Despite receiving medical care, Ernest died of his wounds on 24 July 1916.
Private Ernest Fisher was buried in Puchevillers British Cemetery in France.
He was 22 years old.
His death was reported in the local Kiama and Ballarat papers, alongside the names of others who had fallen in the opening days of the battle of Pozieres.
- AWM Roll of Honour https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R1731920
- Virtual war memorial Australia https://vwma.org.au/explore/people/93940
