FLETCHER, Colin Evan Boulton
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Rank:
Lieutenant (Acting Temporary Captain)
Unit / Base:
45RM Commando
'Commando Mountain Warfare Training Centre' (CMWTC)
Regiment/Corps:
Royal Marines
Service:
Royal Navy
Born:
Tuesday, March 14, 1922
Birthplace:
Cardiff, Wales
Died :
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Age:
85
Lieutenant Colin Fletcher served in the RM Holding Commando in August 1943 before his posting to 45RM Commando by December of that year [1][2].
During the Normandy Landings on D Day he commanded 'F' Troop Medium Machine Gun Section of 45RM Commando [2a][3]. Promoted Acting Temporary Captain in 1945 [2].
He also served as Captain and Instructor at the Commando Mountain Warfare Training Centre at St Ives [3][3a].
Post war he was a member of the Commando Association, emigrating first to Kenya, then Rhodesia, and Canada, before finally settling in Carmel Valley, California [3][4].
An avid backpacker and trailblazer for modern hiking he wrote his first of several books which was published in 1964, "The Thousand Mile Summer", about his walk in 1958 along the Pacific Crest trail from Mexico to Oregon [4].
In 1968 he wrote a hiking guide "The Complete Walker". It was this book that encouraged so many others to take up hiking. He was the first person ever to walk the entire length of the Grand Canyon and wrote a book about this journey which he titled "The Man who Walked Through Time" [4].
Sources
[1] Navy Lists, Bi Monthly, August and December 1943, Volume 1. (National Library of Scotland).
[2] Navy Lists, Quarterly, January and April 1945, Volume 2. (National Library of Scotland)
[2a] The book 'A Plain Russett-Coated Captain", author Capt. John Day 45RM Cdo.
[3] Commando Association newsletters 63 and 79.
[3a] See Linked Content below.
[4] Obituary in the New York Times 19 June 2007.
[4][Image] Courtesy of Andreas M Cohrs http://colinfletcher.com/biography/ author of California Serendipity.
[4] Numerous Californian newspaper reports including the Placerville Mountain Democrat 20 June 2007 and Lodi News Sentinel 18 June 2007.
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