William Bartlett Fletcher
Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy

William Bartlett Fletcher was born on 7 January 1862 in Vermont.

Fletcher entered the U.S. Naval Academy in 1877 at the age of fifteen and graduated in 1882. He was promoted to Ensign on 1 July 1884, to Lieutenant Junior Grade on 13 May 1894, and to Lieutenant on 25 October 1897.

Fletcher's early training included service in square-rigged sailing and steam vessels. In the Spanish-American War, he was aboard the old battleship USS Massachusetts. Later, he served in the Philippine Islands, served three tours of duty at the Naval War College at Newport, RI, and was on the staff of the Navy General Staff in Washington.

After the U.S. entered World War I, Fletcher was Commanding Officer of the U.S. Patrol Squadrons operating in European waters, a unit of converted yachts that crossed the Atlantic to Europe, with the USS Noma as Fletcher's flagship.

After the armistice he served at Key West, FL, in the Fourteenth Naval District and as head of a U.S. Naval Mission to Brazil.

Fletcher retired as a Captain in December of 1921 and was promoted in June of 1930 to Rear Admiral, a temporary rank he had held during World War I.

Personal

He had a son, William Bartlett Fletcher, Jr. (1900-1980).

Death and Burial

Rear Admiral William Bartlett Fletcher died on 29 June 1957 in the Naval Hospital at St. Albans, Queens, NY. He was 95 years old and, at the time of his death, the oldest graduate of flag rank of the U.S. Naval Academy. He is buried at the U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery in Annapolis, MD.