Royal Army Medical Corps
Samuel Enoch Fletcher was born in Pontypridd, Glamorganshire in 1868, the son of Samuel Fletcher (1844-1912) and Jane (formerly Williams) (born 1845). The family moved to Lydbrook about 1870. Samuel Fletcher (senior) worked in the Lydbrook Tinplate Works and was later joined by his son, who was recorded as a ‘tinplate worker’ in the 1891 census.
Samuel Fletcher married Alice E Robbins in Lydbrook in 1891. The couple had seven children, one was deceased by time of the 1911 Census.
Around 1900, Samuel and Alice Fletcher left Lydbrook and in the 1901 census they were living in Aberdare, Samuel being employed in a tinplate works there. Later a further move was made to Lycoch, Ystradgynlais, Swansea Valley, Breconshire, and employment in another tinplate works as a ‘furnace man’.
Despite being married and having six children Samuel joined the Royal Army Medical Corps. in August 1915 and was reported in the local newspaper as proceeding to Aldershot on 1 September. He was stationed for a short time in Dublin and the local newspaper recorded that he had returned home on 48 hours leave, prior to expected service overseas, on the week-end of 27/28 September 1915.
Samuel Enoch Fletcher died at the Cambridge Military Hospital, Aldershot, on 21 December 1915, aged 47 years, as the result of an asthma attack.
Although his home was at Ystradgynlais, at the request of his widowed mother his remains were returned to Lydbrook on 24 December and he was buried in the family plot at Lydbrook Baptist Chapelyard, with full military honours, on 26 December 1915. Probate was granted to William Ware, foundry worker and Thomas Idris Lewis, blacksmith — the estate amounted to £142.
Researched by Eric Nicholls November 2016