Descendant honours Footscray mother of 11 who had eight sons enlist for World War I

FOOTSCRAY matriarch Annie Fisher wore a badge over her heart for each son serving in World War I.

Annie Fisher was an extraordinary woman who saw eight sons head to WW1, the most of any family in Australia. Two never made it back. She was the mother of 11 of her own children and of 4 step children. Annie is John's great grandmother.

FOOTSCRAY matriarch Annie Fisher wore a badge over her heart for each son serving in World War I.

Eight of her sons enlisted, the most of any family in Australia, and a burden shared by only one other mother in the Commonwealth.

Annie was widowed a year before war broke out in Europe but the “ordinary housewife” would become an “extraordinary woman” by the time the armistice came.

A mother of 11 children and four stepchildren, she lived in Newell St where she loved her large family as much as her garden and chickens.

Descendant John Fisher, who is Annie’s great-­grandson, said she would have been an incredibly strong woman who kept the family unit going.

Her boys Walter, Eli, Terence, George, John Sr, Cecil, Edward and James joined the army while a ninth son, Robert, was barred due to poor eye sight. Two out of eight wouldn’t return home.

James Joseph Fisher.

John Martin Fisher.

John Sr and Walter sailed in the first embarkation to leave Melbourne on board the Hororata while Eli, Terence and George were all in the 3rd pioneer battalion on the Western Front.

Mr Fisher said they would have felt it was their duty to serve the British Empire, with the eldest Edward having ­already fought during the Boer War.

Cecil Fisher.

Edward Fisher.

Cecil would go on to receive the Military Medal for “conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty”.

He left his entrenched gun position on three occasions during an attack at Bray, France, on August 22, 1918, to bring wounded comrades to safety.

Mr Fisher’s grandfather, Terence, would rarely speak about his time at the front.

When writing from hospital in 1915, John Sr had reassured his family that he was all right after the events of April 25.

“I can see you looking anxiously for the list of casualties, but you needn’t worry,” he wrote.

“I’m all right, excepting a bit weak, and my leg a bit stiff, where the bullet passed through, not seriously.”

Eli Fisher.

Terence Fisher.

John Sr died four months later on August 9, of wounds received the previous day at the battle of Lone Pine, on board a hospital ship. He was buried at sea in the Dardanelles.

James, a Gallipoli veteran, rejoined the armed forces after recovering from an injury in early 1918 but died of malaria caught while on duty in occupied German New Guinea.

A photo hangs on Mr Fisher and wife Jacinta’s dining room wall where Annie sits proudly among her eight sons. It was taken in 1920 with John Sr and James superimposed into the family photograph.

Walter Fisher.

George Fisher.

Mr Fisher said a story passed down through generations was that Annie had merited a trip to England to visit the royal family given her family’s military record but she wasn’t interested.

He said it summed up a woman who only wanted to be surrounded by family.