Service Personnel Information 1914–1918

Military Service Record 1914–1918

His Story

William Anthony Fisk was born in Liverpool, England, on 10 June 1880. He was named for his father and his paternal grandfather. His parents were William Powell Fisk and Gwen Davies (m. 1877). In c1881 the family was living in Liverpool. William had an older sister, Jane (b. 1879); his father was an oil and paint merchant. By c1891, William Sr. had died (1888). William was living with his mother, a teacher (identified that year as Winifred), his sister, and a younger brother, Charles (b. 1883). In c1901 William was living in St. Pancras, London. His mother, Gwen, was a boarding house keeper; his sister was a clerk; he was an architecture student.

William likely came to Canada on the Allan Line ship, the Tunisian, from Liverpool to Montreal in 1903. There is no record of his life in Canada until he attested on 5 December 1915 in Campbell River. He was living at the time in Heriot Bay, and working as a marine gas engineer. [There are photographs of the men training in Comox, and boarding the Princess Charlotte.] He went overseas with three others of our Cenotaph men with the 102nd Battalion (Comox-Atlin) on the Empress of Britain in June 1916. In July they were shipped to France. He was wounded in November (a contusion to his back), and returned to duty in December.

According to the War Diary, William Anthony Fisk was Killed in Action on 24 September 1917. At that time, the battalion was in the area of the Lens-Arras Road. [The fighting was part of the Third Battle of Ypres which climaxed in Passchendaele.] The diary reads: “11 pm – Very fine day. Heavy barrage again on “D” Co’s front; 1 OR killed, 2 OR wounded. Corps Tramways [light railways – which were operated by petrol engines in the forward areas] were caught by Hun artillery and a direct hit on the engine killed Pte. Fiske (sic), one of original men from Comox.” He is buried in Villers Station Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France.

Family Bits: His brother, Charles, emigrated to New York, married and had two daughters. He and his family were on both c1920 and c1930. He died in 1964. His mother, Gwen, visited in 1920; Jane in 1924. A Winnifred Fisk is mentioned on one page of his WWI documents. His mother was misidentified in c1891 as Winifred. Also that year, three Shaw nieces were living with the family. Their parents were James William Shaw and Emma Gunter Fisk. She would have been William’s sister. William Powell Fisk’s parents were Anthony Fisk and Sarah Anne Powell (m. 1848).