Private Laurence Joseph Fewer 1268, son of William and Ellen Fewer, of Placentia, Newfoundland.
Enlistment of Private Laurence Joseph Fewer
Pte Fewer enlisted 15 March 1915, standing 5′ 7″ tall, 141 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes. Occupation – Paper Maker, earning $3.50 a day.
Laurence embarked for the UK on 22 April 1915. On 17 August 1915, awarded 5 days CC for creating a disturbance after lights out at le Buff by Captain Ayre. The following month, awarded 2 days CC for absent from 9:15am Parade by Lt Pippy.
The Newfoundland Regiment disembarked in Gallipoli on 1 December 1915.
France
Disembarked the Gallipoli sector on 14 March 1916, Suez, arriving at Marseilles on 22 March 1916.
Battle of the Somme
Of all the battles that the Newfoundland Regiment fought during the Great War, none as devastating or defining as the first day of the Battle of the Somme. The Regiment’s tragic advance at Beaumont Hamel on the morning of July 1, 1916 became an enduring symbol of its valour and of its terrible wartime sacrifices. The events of that day forever seared into the cultural memory of the Newfoundland and Labrador people.
Knightsbridge Cemetery
Knightsbridge Cemetery used by units fighting on that front until the German withdrawal in February 1917 and used again by fighting units from the end of March to July 1918, when the German advance brought the front line back to the Ancre.
After the Armistice, some burials in Rows G, H and J added when graves brought in from isolated positions on the battlefields of 1916 and 1918 round Mesnil.
Knightsbridge Cemetery contains 548 Great War burials, 141 of them unidentified. The cemetery was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield.
Burial Report
Burial report by Rev C Mayne, attached to the 86th Brigade. Grave 7, Knightsbridge on 1 July 1916. Buried by Rev H S Reid, attached to 87th Brigade.
Location
The village of Mesnil about 8 kilometres north of the town of Albert on the D129 road. Access by a farm track of which 1 kilometre is tarmac and 1 kilometre is dirt track (unsuitable for cars). The KNIGHTSBRIDGE CEMETERY 200 metres from the track and no permanent grass pathway exists.
At the age of 55 (actually 66 years of age), Laurence’s father William Fewer 3408 enlisted with the RNR Forestry Companies on 15 February 1918. Finally discharged in Newfoundland on 8 July 1919.
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