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Name: FITTALL, Lancelot Albert Wilfred 'Lancie' (Serjeant)
Nee: son of Robert Joseph Fittall
Birth Date: 18 Dec 1918 Mombasa
Death Date: 12 Feb 1944 on active service, sinking of SS Khedive Ismail by torpedo
First Date: 1918
Last Date: 1944
Area: Mombasa
Book Reference: Gillett, EAWL, Sitrep 2, CWGC, KR
War Service: Kenya Regt. and on outbreak of WW2 seconded to EA Artillery, based at Gilgil
School: Nairobi Primary School, Prince of Wales School, Nairobi
General Information:
Is on Kenya Regt. Memorial
In WW2 served in Abyssinia and Madagascar. Awarded the British Empire Medal and twice mentioned in Despatches for Bravery and devotion to duty. He left Mombasa in 1944, together with many other servicemen and women, on the troopship 'Khedive Ismail' en route to Ceylon. The ship was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine and it sank with the loss of 1000 lives. As a memorial to Lancie the West doors to St. Mark's Church, Westlands, Nairobi, on which a plaque is fixed, were donated by his family to commemorate his loss in action at sea. Source: Mrs C.N.A. Cooper
CWGC - Fittal, Serjeant, L.A.W., B/407. East African Elec & Mech Engineers. 12th February 1944. Column 65, EA Memorial
One of the original '500' men in the Kenya Regt. in 1937. (KR 48).
Prince of Wales School Roll of Honour has his surname as Fittall-Law