Born at Prestwich, Lancashire, and served his apprenticeship with John Goodman, of Salford, with his uncle, James Ogden, one of the leading medical men in Salford, and with his uncle's successor, William B Lumb. Young Fletcher took a keen interest from the first in science, especially in chemistry and botany. He made a collection of the plants of Southern Lancashire, which was nearly exhaustive. He entered as a student at the Manchester School of Medicine, and won a prominent position by his diligence and acquirements. He settled in Manchester as a general practitioner, and was appointed Medical Superintendent to one of the temporary hospitals established to combat the very prevalent fever 'of a low type', which was probably typhoid, for while prescribing and organizing he endeavoured in fatal cases to elucidate 'the pathology of typhoid fever as it affected the intestinal canal'. He had a severe attack, but made a satisfactory recovery. He was appointed in conjunction with his brother, Dr Shepherd Fletcher, one of the Lecturers on Anatomy in the new Chatham Street School of Medicine, and continued to lecture until the two medical schools in Manchester were amalgamated, when his students presented him with a valuable testimonial. Fletcher was appointed in 1865 by the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway Company their Consulting Surgeon, and during two or three years gained a wide experience of railway injuries and travellers' injuries generally. He was for some years active in the management of the Manchester Medical Society, of which he was President in 1869, and was much interested in the Medico-Ethical Society. At the time of his death he was Medical Officer of the 'A' and 'B' Divisions of the Manchester City Police, and of the City Gaol. He was a Fellow of the Medical Society of London. His death occurred at Manchester, where his addresses were 35 Lever Street and Greenhays Lane, on September 14th, 1874. Publications: *Railways in their Medical Aspects*, 8vo, London, 1867. In this work he tabulated the more important facts relating to 175 patients injured in railway accidents, chiefly in collisions. "Sugar found in the Perspiration, Tears, and Ceruminous Matter of the Ears." - *Med. Times Lond.*, 1847, xvi, 393. "On the Treatment of the Feet and Breech Presentations." - *Ibid.*, 1849, xix, 595. "Exophthalmic Goitre." - *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1863, I, 529. This last is an interesting paper, in which five cases of recovery are related.