serviceyears branch death_date death_place birth_place allegiance unit awards battles birth_date rank image article_title name
1914 - 1915 canadian expeditionary force 23 april 1915 st julien , belgium st. catharines , ontario 20px canada 13th battalion , cef victoria cross first world war 3 august 1894 lance-corporal frederick fisher.jpg frederick fisher
 frederick fisher
frederick fisher

frederick fisher vc -lrb- 3 august 1894 -- 23 april 1915 -rrb- , was a canadian recipient of the victoria cross , the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to british and commonwealth forces .
he was the first canadian-born man to win the vc while serving in the canadian army .
a native of st. catharines , ontario , he had gone to mcgill university in montreal to study engineering in 1913 .
during that year , he also joined the alpha psi chapter of the zeta psi fraternity .
he was 20 years old , and a lance-corporal in the 13th -lrb- royal highlanders of canada -rrb- battalion , canadian expeditionary force during the first world war when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the vc .
to open the second battle of ypres , on 22 april 1915 near st julien , belgium , the germans unleashed the world 's first effective poison gas attack .
caught by surprise , the french division to the left of the 1st canadian division was routed , with heavy casualties .
after a short pause to wait for the gas to clear , the germans launched an attack into the gap , while the british and canadians desperately tried to establish a new defence line .
thousands of german troops were moving in the open towards the hasty defence created by elements of the 14th battalion cef around st. julien .
as the improvised defence crumbled , the enemy were only 200 yards away and threatening to overrun a canadian artillery battery .
fisher and six other men went forward with a machine-gun and , under heavy fire , covered the retreat of the battery , losing four men in the process .
this action allowed for the canadian 18 pounders to be hauled out of danger .
later , when lance corporal fisher had obtained four more men from the 14th battalion , he went forward again into st julien to fire on the swarming germans .
in the ensuing firefight , only fisher survived ; the remainder were killed or wounded .
meanwhile , the 13th battalion -lrb- which was on the extreme left of the canadian division -rrb- was under heavy fire from three sides and suffering heavy casualties .
fisher set up his gun at another position to attack the oncoming germans and was subsequently killed on april 23 while yet again bringing his machine-gun into action under very heavy fire .
like many of the other canadian soldiers who fell in the first three days of the second battle of ypres , fisher 's body was never recovered .
his name can be found on the menin gate ; the memorial in ypres for 56,000 troops from britain , australia , canada and india whose final resting place in the ypres salient is unknown .
his vc is held by the canadian black watch museum in montreal .
