Henry St John Fancourt
Henry Fancourt | |
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Mentioned in despatches (1918; May 1941) |
Captain Henry Lockhart St John Fancourt
Fancourt was born in
The Battle of Jutland, 1916
On 31 May 1916, the Princess Royal was involved in the initial engagement of the Battle of Jutland. Two of her sister ships were lost (with nearly 2,000 men) and the Princess Royal was mistakenly reported as having been sunk. In reality she had been hit twice and was hit three more times later in the battle. Fancourt's action station was in the rear gun turret so he did not see much of the battle.
Fancourt was
Interwar activities
After the war, Fancourt attended
In 1927, while serving on
After a tour in HMS Renown, he was assigned to HMS Courageous in 1929. In August of that year he took part in operations to restore order in Palestine. Working ashore with the RAF, he flew in support of the Army and Navy and made demonstration flights over Jerusalem.
In June 1931, Fancourt was involved in trials, aboard Courageous, of a new system of athwartships
In April 1933, after promotion to
After this assignment he worked in the
World War II
In December 1940 he was promoted
In May 1941, he was
While at
This turned into a disaster when the commandos that landed on either side of Algiers failed to capture the Vichy artillery batteries. These heavily bombarded Fancourt's destroyers and Malcolm had to withdraw after suffering engine room damage. Broke, with Fancourt, penetrated the defensive boom on her fourth attempt and landed her troops. Broke was sunk by French artillery later in the day but the crew and wounded were transferred to the destroyer HMS Zetland. Fancourt was awarded the DSO for his part in the battle.
In January 1943, Fancourt was placed in command of the Argus, now a training carrier. In September 1943, he was given command of the maintenance carrier
Post-war career
In April 1946, he was appointed deputy chief naval representative in the
Fancourt joined the aircraft manufacturer Short Brothers and Harland in Belfast, where he worked until his retirement in 1965. While there, he was chief of staff to Admiral Sir Matthew Slattery, a colleague from No 1 Pilots Course.[1]
The final entry in his flight logbook was in 1956, by which time he had logged 1,317 flying hours.[1]
Family
Fancourt married twice (Lillian Marion Osborne (née Parkin); in 1921, divorced in 1960) and Pauline Bettina Mosley (née Kimble; died 2001); he had two sons and two daughters. Both sons were in the Navy - Michael served in the Fleet Air Arm, and Rodney, who predeceased his father, was a captain in the Royal Naval Reserve and commanded London Division RNR. In 1943, Fancourt landed a Fairey Swordfish with Michael, then a 16-year-old Air Training Corps cadet, as a passenger, on HMS Argus. This was probably the first father-and-son deck landing.[1]