along with a machine-gun squad commanded by Fisher. Under heavy fire, he covered the retreat of the battery, losing four men in the process. His actions allowed for the battery to initially remove the immediate threat posed by the Germans and continue firing and then for its guns eventually hauled to safety later in the evening. Early the next morning, 23 April, when Fisher had obtained four more men from the 14th Battalion, he went forward again into St. Julien to fire on the swarming Germans. Meanwhile, the 13th Battalion positioned on the extreme left of the Canadian Division's sector was under heavy fire. Fisher set up his gun at another position to attack the oncoming Germans and was subsequently killed while yet again bringing his machine gun into action under very heavy fire. Fisher was awarded the Victoria Cross (VC) for his actions on 22 April 1915. The VC, instituted in 1856, was the highest award for valour that could be bestowed on a soldier of the British Empire and Fisher was the first Canadian recipient from the CEF to earn the award. The citation that was published in the London Gazette for his VC read: The citation refers to 23 April 1915; this is likely an error as his actions in covering the withdrawal of the artillery battery were performed on 22 April. Like many of the other Canadian soldiers who fell in the first three days of the Second Battle of Ypres, Fisher's body was never recovered. His name can be found on the Menin Gate war memorial in Ypres for the 56,000 troops from Britain, Australia, Canada and India killed in the Ypres Salient and who have no known grave. Victoria Cross In August 1915, the War Office forwarded Fisher's VC to his parents, who were living in Westmount, and accompanied by a handwritten letter from King George V. The following year, they attended a ceremony at McGill University where a portrait of Fisher was unveiled. Following the death of Fisher's mother in 1946, the VC was passed on to his sister, who in turn donated it to the Royal Highland Regiment of Canada, now known as the Black Watch. The VC is securely held in a bank vault while a replica is displayed at its headquarters in Montreal. Fisher is remembered by two plaques; the first, laid in 1917, is at the Royal Highlanders of