FISHER Gerald Learoyd Hammond Lieut

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Surname: FISHER;

Forename(s): Gerald Learoyd Hammond;

Initials: HLH;

Rank: Lieut;

Born in: Southport;

Enlistment Date: 01-Sep-1914;

Previous Number: 2190;

Previous Battalion: 6 of;

Previous Regiment: Liverpool Regt;

MGC Branch: Infantry;

MGC Unit: 164 Coy;

How killed: KIA;

Where: France;

When killed: 08-Aug-1916;

Other Data: Shrewsbury School Register 1908-1908: Gerald Learoyd Hammond-Fisher at School 1909-1912 2Lt Kings Liverpool Regt & MGC. K in France 1918.
Red Cross Enquiry List (Supplement) Sept 1916 - (GLH Fisher) msg, bel K 19/8/1916
: of 12 Curzon Rd, Prenton, Birkenhead born 5/2/1895, Articled Clerk (Law) NOK: 3 Tower Mansions, Lord St, Southport. Letter to NOK (Gertrude Kelso Fisher, widow and mother of dec'd) June 1919 - missing, believed killed 8/8/1916 - death now accepted for official purposes. Estate £1245/9/2d
enlisted 1/9/1914 as 2190 6 Kings. Commsn 23/2/1915 1/8th Liverpool Regt.
Letter to Sec, War Office, re letter obtained by Fisher's solicitors from 21711 Sgt WE Collinson MGC concerning the events of 8/8/1916.
Letter written by Sgt Collinson: "On the night of the 7th August 1916 No 3 section of 164 MG Coy of which 2/Lt Fisher was in command went into the trenches at about 8pm in the evening. We stayed in our first main-line trench until about 1 o'clock on the morning of the 8th. At about this time on Mr Fisher's orders we went over the parapet and concealed ourselves in shell-holes, two men in each shell hole. We remained in the shell holes until 4.15. During the time we were in the shell holes, Mr Fisher was walking from one shell-hole to the other to see the men were all right. At 4.15 in the morning, A & B coys of the 8th Irish went over the parapet to make the attack. They were finished a minute afterwards by C & D Coys and Mr Fisher's orders were to follow C & D. As soon as C & D Coys passed us, we got up and followed them. Mr Fisher went first. I followed about two paces behind him and the remainder of the gun team twelve in number followed in single file. We got right through two strands of German wire without any casualties and when we got just about five yards from the German parapet, the Germans started bombing us with gas bombs and a gas bomb fell between Mr Fisher and myself. I saw Mr Fisher draw his revolver and I noticed that he went a sort of yellowish colour in the face, but he remained standing. The gas bomb made me cough and tears ran down from my eyes making it very difficult for me to see exactly what happened for a few minutes. Just about this moment I heard the word "retire". I immediately turned round to look for my men but could not see them anywhere. I then started to look up and down to see if I could see anything of them but I could not see them and I then turned to look for Mr Fisher, but I could not see him anywhere. When I could not see Mr Fisher, I thought he must have heard the word "retire" and gone back himself or that he had gone forward with the 8th as he once said to me that he intended to follow the 8th. The mist was very thick and the whole line was retiring and I then retired with them and got into a shell hole where I found two of my men and a gun. Almost immediately I got into the shell hole one of men men was wounded, leaving me with one man and a gun. We stayed in the shell hole a few minutes and then proceeded to retire to our own trench. We were about the last to get there and the front line trench was crammed full and we had to make our way back to the original first line trench. I then started to look for my men and to do this I had to get over the parapet and I was walking up and down the parapet for about an hour and a half when I found seven men of the original team. I then found Capt Sartorious and reported Mr Fisher as missing to him, but I did not say that he was in a shell hole. I told him he was gassed and by the time I had found Capt Sartorious the mist had cleared and it was too light to send out a search party. On the night of the 8th, search parties went out looking for wounded, and wounded kept coming in by degrees. On the night of the 8th, I was in a hole between our original front line trench and the advance trench with my machine gun. At 1 o'clock in the morning of the 9th, I was relieved and I went back to rest. As soon as ever I got back into our own trench I asked a number of men if they had seen anything of Lieut Fisher, but they all said that they had not. After the attack had failed there was heavy shelling on both sides and a great deal of machine gun fire. Signed Sgt WE Collinson, 9/11/1916";

Other Notes: FISHER, Lieutenant, GERALD LEAROYD HAMMOND, 1st/8th Bn. The King's (Liverpool Regiment) attd. Machine Gun Corps (Inf). 8th August 1916. Pier and Face 5 C and 12 C Thiepval Memorial - Somme, France.
NB: In official records as Herbert LH Fisher;

Related National Archives files: wo374/24409;

END OF RECORD.

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