Henry St John Fancourt

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Henry St John Fancourt : biography

01 April 1900 – 08 January 2004

In 1927, while serving on HMS Argus, he took part in the western military buildup in the Far East when European interests in Shanghai were threatened by fighting between the forces of Chiang Kai-shek and the warlord Sun Chuan Fang.

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 arrester cables to catch landing aircraft. He was the first to land using the new system which is now standard on modern aircraft carriers.

In April 1933, after promotion to Lieutenant-Commander, Fancourt became the first Commanding Officer of the newly formed 822 Squadron. The squadron, formed at Netheravon, flew Fairey IIIF biplanes.

After this assignment he worked in the Admiralty organising the recruitment and training of officers for the expanding Fleet Air Arm. In 1937 the Fleet Air Arm was handed back to the Navy from the Air Ministry. He later served as second in command of the cruiser HMS Neptune then commanded the sloop HMS Weston.

Family

Fancourt had 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 the other, 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.

Post-war career

In April 1946, he was appointed deputy chief naval representative in the Ministry of Supply. He was retired from the Navy in 1951, not having been promoted to flag rank due to his lack of "sea time", in other words insufficient experience aboard ship. He was embittered by being, "bunged out" of the Navy (as he saw it), with just one month’s notice.

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.

The final entry in his flight logbook was in 1956, by which time he had logged 1,317 flying hours.