Charlie Fishwick WW2

Charles Edward Fishwick, Private. NX48278, 2/12 Field Ambulance, Australian Army Medical Corps. Killed in action. 14th May 1943, at sea. Age 21.

Charlie Fishwick was a member of a large local family, which is reputed to go back to the days of the Priors of Cartmel. The name Fishwick appears in medieval glass taken from Cartmel which is now in the east window of St. Martin's church, Windermere. His parents were George Tyson Fishwick and Sarah Ellen Fishwick.

The centre of Field Broughton village.

The family lived in Field Broughton village and the young Charlie went to school in Cartmel and became one of my father's best friends. On leaving school he went into farm service, working at Cark Hall for the Lewis family. When he reached the age of fifteen he went to Australia to work on his Uncle's farm, planning to stay there for the next five years. His mother, whose maiden name was Farrer, had two brothers in Australia, George and Billy. One had sons to help him on the farm, the other did not, this was Charlie's destination. These plans were disrupted by the outbreak of war and he joined the Australian army, being posted to a Field Ambulance unit of the Australian Imperial Force.

Charlie's first operational posting was on board the Ocean Steamship Company's passenger-cargo vessel "Centaur" (3,222 gross tons), which had been converted into a hospital ship.

On the night of 14th May 1943 the ship, fully illuminated and marked with Red Crosses, was about fifty miles from Brisbane, heading for New Guinea with a full complement of medical personnel, when she was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. The ship sank very quickly, only forty of the crew being rescued, its position being 27^o 17^/ S, 154^o 05^/ E.

Charles left a widow, Mavis, who became a Missionary Nurse in Ethiopia. Mavis Fishwick retired to Australia and visited local members of her late husband's family on a trip to England in 1999.

Private Fishwick is commemorated on the Sydney Memorial, Panel 3.