This is part of a series of essays about the First World War casualties commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Massachusetts.
Ezra Charles Fitch Jr. was born on 2 May 1881 in New York, NY. His father was the president of the renowned Waltham Watch Company. Charlie Fitch was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard (Class of 1905). On 14 November 1906 he married Ethel Tucker.[1] When war broke out he was managing the Montreal office of the Waltham Watch Company, although his home was in Manchester, Massachusetts.
He enlisted on 20 August 1917 and joined the 2nd Reinforcing Company, 5th Regiment (Royal Highlanders of Canada) where he was allocated the number 2075594.[2] While travelling in New England on a recruiting tour, he fell ill and was admitted to Hartford Hospital, Hartford Connecticut on 8 October 1917 and died 13 October. He is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, Mattapan in the family plot (Lot 1054, Grave 19) on Central Avenue just before the junction with Union Avenue.
His memorial plaque and scroll and Memorial Cross were sent to his wife. Private Ezra Charles Fitch is commemorated on page 237 of the Canadian First World War Book of Remembrance; that page is displayed on 27 May. He is also commemorated on the wall of the Memorial Room in Harvard’s Memorial Church.
1. (Back) Ethel Tucker (11 February 1878-31 May 1942). Former wife of Archibald Lionel Bethune, later the 13th Earl of Lindsay (divorced March 1906). Their son, William Tucker Lindesay-Bethune, became the 14th Earl of Lindsay. On 17 May 1921 she remarried Bethune.
2. (Back) The training of recruits was later undertaken by the depot battalions formed in late 1917 and early 1918. In this region that was by 1st Depot Battalion, 1st Quebec Regiment which was formed in August 1917, at about the time of Fitch’s recruitment, hence the terminology on some of his documents and on his CWGC commemoration.
Sacrifice 