Commander, Royal Navy
Born: June 18th 1899
Died: February 27th 1942
Age at Death: 42
Missing presumed killed, February 27th 1942
House Prefect 1917
Shooting 8 1917
Cecil was born on 1 June 1899 in Twickenham, Middlesex, to Hermon May, a solicitor, and his wife Ethel (née Harris). We have no direct information about what he did in the years between his time at the College, where he was a House Prefect and a member of the Shooting VIII, and the Second World War. However, he had doubtless already served many years in the Royal Navy before the outbreak of war, because at the end of 1940 he was given command of his own destroyer, HMS Electra, with the rank of lieutenant-commander. In 1941 the ship saved men from the battlecruiser Repulse, including fellow Old Brightonian John Darwall, after she was sunk by Japanese planes.
In February 1942 the Electra was sunk by Japanese surface ships in the Battle of the Java Sea, a major Japanese victory. In correspondence with the College almost a year later, his mother wrote:
Two of the crew have written me the most awfully nice letters and all the men seemed very devoted to their Captain.
Cecil left a widow, Eileen, and is commemorated at the Chatham Naval Memorial in Kent.