David Francis Fletcher

This story is shared by the Trust with kind permission from John Hamblin, Researcher.

David Francis Fletcher, Major 88703, B Company, 2nd Battalion King's Royal Rifle Corps. Killed in action on the 16th of August 1944, aged 26.

David Francis Fletcher was born in China on the 20th of March 1918, the younger son of Sir Arthur George Murchison Fletcher KCMG CBE, Governor of Ceylon, and Violet Dorothy Fletcher (née Rogers-Harrison) of Flat 3, 5 Chartfield Avenue, Putney in South London.

He was educated at Winchester College, where he was in Turners House from 1931 to 1936. He was a member of the Officer Training Corps and was appointed as a Prefect. He went on to Trinity College Oxford but after a trip to the United States in 1937 he decided against a university life and left later the same year. He moved to Hamburg where he learned German before returning home when he went into business in London.

He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps (Queen’s Westminsters) on the 14th of June 1939. By September 1940 he was serving as a Liaison Officer at General Headquarters, Home Forces. During this period, he was involved in a serious road accident in which he broke his neck and spent many months recovering. When he recovered, he was posted to the 2nd Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps. He was promoted to Lieutenant on the 1st of January 1941 and to temporary Captain on the 28th of January 1942.

He saw action at El Alamein in October 1942 where he acted as an Intelligence Officer and was wounded in both legs during the fighting. He spent some time in hospital at Cairo before returning to his battalion where he took part in the attack on the German held Mareth Line in March 1943. During the fighting he took command of B Company when its commanding officer was wounded by the explosion of a mine. He was also present at the fall of Tunis on the 7th of May 1943.

On the 24th of September 1943 the battalion crossed to Italy and on the 1st of October they began their move north to join the fighting where the battalion saw action at the Battle of Sangro River. The battalion returned to England where he was promoted to Captain on the 26th of April 1944 and to temporary Major on the same date.

On the 7th of June 1944, David Fletcher landed with his battalion in Normandy at Juno Beach, where B Company was using their light half-track vehicles in support of 44th Royal Tank Regiment. By August the battalion was heavily involved in the fighting in the Falaise Pocket where the Germans were being surrounded but were fighting a series of intense rear-guard actions.

On the 16th of August 1944 B Company was near the village of Tréprel  when they were attacked by German infantry causing twenty-three casualties among the company. David Fletcher and Lieutenant David Francis Wyndham were making a reconnaissance in the area when they were caught by heavy mortar fire at a crossroads and killed. He was buried by his men at Tréprel  but his body was later exhumed and re-interred at its present location in Ranville War Cemetery, Plot IX, Row D, Grave 25.

David Fletcher is commemorated on the war memorial at Winchester College and on the memorial at Lloyd’s of London.