B145438 Corporal John “Jack” Milton Fidge was born in Toronto on 18 March 1925, the son of Leonard Milton Fidge and Madeline Maud Parnell. His father had served in the First World War with the 48th Highlanders Regiment in France. had one brother Leonard Ralph and a sister, Judith Anna.

He went to Forest Hill Village School until he left school at the age of 16 after completing grade 10.

Fidge worked as a machinist with a jewelry supply company when he enlisted in the Canadian Army active service on 5 April 1943 in Toronto. He’d previously been an Irish Regiment army cadet and may or may not have served in the Irish Regiment.

He trained in Borden (where he was thrice charged with significant absences without leave, and Debert, Nova Scotia before being transferred to Vancouver, British Columbia, where he was posted to the Pacific Command Divisional Signals.

He arrived in England in April 1944 and was posted to a reinforcement unit. He went to France in October 1944 and was posted to The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada on the 10th. A month later he was appointed a Lance Corporal and in January 1945 promoted to Corporal.

In the last days before Fidge’s death, the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada launched an attack on the hamlet of Mooshof in Germany. The regiment was tasked to capture ground which was considered essential for the development of future operations.

Corporal Fidge was killed in Germany in the early hours of 26 February 1945 at age 20.

He is buried in Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery, The Netherlands, grave reference VIII. H. 3.

On Fidge’s headstone, his family had engraved:

IN LOVING MEMORY
OF ONE WHO GAVE HIS LIFE
THAT OTHERS MIGHT LIVE
IN FREEDOM

He is also commemorated in the Forest Hill Village Cenotaph in Toronto and on the Wons Marker in The Netherlands.