My Grandfather, Charles Everett Fraser

by Bruce Fraser

My Grandfather, Charles Everett Fraser from Alma, NS, was 16 years old when he and a couple friends lied about their age and enlisted in Pictou NS.

He served all over France as a signal man and was wounded twice. Once a bullet split the tip of his finger and the second time shrapnel from a bomb pierced his larynx and embedded in his spine. He spend nearly two year in hospital in France (where he nearly died from the Flu Epidemic raging at the time) and in England. In hospital in England the same Doctor who examined him in Pictou when he enlisted visited him and asked him “So, how old are you now?” He asked the Doctor if he was going to turn him in for lying about his age to which the Doctor replied certainly not after all you’ve done and been through. They told him when he was first in hospital he would never walk or talk again. He did both within 2 years, but suffered crippling pain from the piece of bomb lodged near his spine for the remainder of his life. He was the kindest, most thoughtful and diplomatic man I have ever known,