838870 Pte. James Fawcett was born to James and Mary Fawcett in the small farming community of Dundalk, Grey County, Onatario, on June 22nd, 1899. The eldest son of the couple's seven children, James was working as a labourer when he attested to the 147th Battalion on January 6th, 1916.
Like many young men James would claim to be a year older than he really was, as his attestation papers show he claimed to be born in 1898. His ruse worked and he was assigned to "D" Company under the command of Captain Pollock.
Billeted locally over the winter the unit left for training at Camp Niagara in the spring of 1916. As the conditions in the Camp were wanting the unit moved to the new training facility of Camp Borden in late June. In September the unit received their orders to proceed overseas, but due to an outbreak of diphtheria they were detained in Amherst, Nova Scotia, for over a month. The unit finally sailed for Great Britain, on November 14th 1916.
On January 1st, 1917, the 147th Battalion ceased to exist when it became the nucleus for the 8th Reserve Battalion, whose task it was to supply reinforcements to the 58th Battalion and the 4th C.M.R. James was taken on strength of the 4th C.M.R. on June 17th, 1917.
Private James Fawcett served with the 4th C.M.R. through Hill 70, Passchendaele and into the final hundred days, coming through it all without any visible wounds.
Credit and thanks for this biography go to George Auer.