One of regiment’s first fatalities to be marked

A service is to be held on Sunday for one of the first UDR victims of the Troubles – Thomas ‘Johnny’ Fletcher.
By The Newsroom
Published 26th Feb 2022, 07:58 BST
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The 43-year-old was murdered on March 1, 1972, after being kidnapped by the IRA in front of his wife at their border farm near Garrison, Fermanagh.

He was taken to a nearby field and shot (14 times, according to the book Lost Lives).

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It came just one day after Henry Dickson, a 46-year-old UDR man from Lurgan, was shot by the IRA (with the attackers also wounding his 11-year-old daughter).

Mr Dickson was the first man from the regiment to die, and Mr Fletcher the second.

A 50th anniversary service marking the life of Mr Fletcher is taking place at Garrison Parish Church at 5pm on Sunday led by Anglican minister Alan Irwin (whose father and uncle were also murdered in separate attacks by the IRA).