FOURTH GENERATION

32. Hedley John FITCH was born on the 9th of February 1883 in Chelmsford, Essex. He emigrated to to Halifax, NS on the 15th of September 1928 . He died on the 6th of January 1967 in Grimsby, Ontario; he was also buried in Grimsby. 
Birth certificate #141? registered March 13, 1883; family residence 92 High Street, Chelmsford; father Harness Maker (Master)

Hedley fought in the Boer War in South Africa, and stayed for about 10 years afterwards. He came home after his father's death to run the family business; he and his family lived with his widowed mother above the store. Later, the family disposed of the business, seeing that harness making was going out of style. The family first rented a home down the street and then moved to a house in Galleywood, owned by Rose. He went to Canada alone for about a year, invested, and then returned to England. He then sent his two sons to Ontario to work on farms for a year. The whole family emigrated in 1929, just before the crash. For a time, Leslie was the only one in the family working. (LAF)

(Immigration records: Landed 15th September 1928 at Pier 21, Halifax, aboard the SS Ascania, as a Visitor. Landed immigrant status granted on May 20th, 1933.)

Hedley and Rose lived in Toronto for many years, then in Grimsby, with their daughter Rosemarie and her husband.

Hedley was married to Rose Agnes Emma SNODGRASS on the 12th of June 1909 in St. Matthew's Church, Denmark Hill, Parish of Lambeth, London. 

Marriage Register entry: no 277; June 12, 1909, Hedley John Fitch, aged 26, Bachelor, Saddler, 92 High Street, Chelmsford; father = George Fitch, saddler (deceased)
Rose Agnes Emma Snodgrass, aged 26, spinster, 26 Valmar Road, Camberwell; father = William Jack Snodgrass, secretary of a public company.  Witnesses Clarence A. Wright (F.R.L.S.?) and John Sadler George Arthur Fitch [written as one name, but probably two, since George Arthur Fitch is probably Hedley's brother] and Mary Ann Snodgrass

Rose Agnes Emma SNODGRASS was born on the 14th of January 1883 in Dulwich, London. According to Immigration records, Rose was born Herne Hill, Lambeth.  (GRO reference March 1883, vol 1d , page 568).  Rose died on the 9th of May 1962 in Grimsby, Ontario. She was also buried in Grimsby. 

Hedley John FITCH and Rose Agnes Emma SNODGRASS had the following children:

+34 i. Hedley William Snodgrass FITCH was born on the 13th of March 1912 in Chelmsford, Essex.  Hedley joined National Defence in 1940 as a bomber pilot.  He was shot down and killed over Milan/ Bardi, Italy on November 24, 1943, and was buried in Milan, Italy. 

Hedley and Bernadette worked in shops next door to each other in Toronto, he in a tobacco shop and she in a Laura Secords.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission: 

Hedley William Fitch, Flight Lieutenant (Pilot), Royal Canadian Air Force, 37 (R.A.F.) Sqdn, age 31, died 24th November  1943; son of Hedley John and Rose Agnes Fitch; husband of Mary Bernadette Fitch of Toronto; Milan War Cemetery.

On the 3rd of September 1943 the Allies invaded the Italian mainland, the invasion coinciding with an armistice made with the Italians who then re-entered the war on the Allied side. The Allied advance was stalled for two successive winters: in 1943 on the German defensive position known as the Gustav Line, stretching from the river Gargliano in the west to the Sangro in the east, and in 1944 on the Gothic Line in the northern Apennine mountains. At the beginning of April 1945, the Allies launched their final offensive against the German positions spread out in a line across Italy, south of Bologna. German resistance was by now beginning to disintegrate and the Allies were able to fan out rapidly across the Po valley. Milan, already freed by Italian Partisans, was entered by the US 4th Corps on 2 May 1945, the day of the German surrender in Italy. As Milan fell to the Allies largely without a fight, the Commonwealth forces suffered few casualties. Most of the graves in Milan War Cemetery were those of prisoners-of-war or airmen and were brought in from the surrounding towns and villages - places such as Bergamo, Boves, Carpi, Cicagna, Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Turin and Val d'Isere - after the war. Milan War Cemetery contains 417 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War, 27 of them unidentified. There are also six war graves of other nationalities.


+35 ii. Leslie Arthur FITCH was born on the 2nd of January 1914 in Chelmsford, Essex, UK. He resided in Ottawa, ON. 
Birth certificate:
Born 2nd of January, 1914 Swiss Cottage, Broomsfield Road, Chelmsford
Leslie Arthur, son of Hedley John Fitch and Rose Agnes Emma Fitch, formerly Snodgrass, father a harness maker (master); residence 92 High Street, Chemlsford.
+36 iii. Rosemarie Jessie FITCH was born on the 16th of June 1916 in Chelmsford, Essex. She died on the 19th of January 1985 in Grimsby, Ontario.