Air Raid Warden
Born: February 18th 1906
Died: May 11th 1941
Age at Death: 35
Killed while on duty, May 11th 1941
Richard was born on 18 February 1906 in Salcombe, Devon, to Arthur Fanshawe and his wife Agnes (née Tuck), but later moved to his father’s original home town of Brighton, where Richard attended the College as a day pupil. He played sports at the school, but his great love was always climbing. Every holiday he would go to the mountains to climb or ski, and after leaving school he went on many expeditions, including ice climbing in the Rocky Mountains in Canada.
During the war he served as a part-time air raid patrol warden in Kensington, where he lived. On the night he died he was not on duty, but, as his sister Stella wrote to the Head Master, ‘when the raid got bad he went out, as he always did, to see if he could help’. He was assisting with firefighting at a big house when, according to Stella:
A high explosive bomb came down on the house and caused terrible havoc – & he was killed along with several others.
The chief warden of his station wrote to his sister praising his ‘intrepid gallantry whenever there was danger’ and ‘his unrivalled efficiency’. Fanshawe is buried locally.