Philip Henry Burt Fitch, born on 22nd April 1897, was admitted to King Edward’s School in September 1911, having attended King Edward VI Grammar School, Nuneaton. He was later elected a Foundation Scholar. Philip lived with his mother, Bride, his father, Albert, managing director of Fitch Ltd. Polish and Firelighter Manufacturers, and his sister, Irene, at 25, Wyndham Road, Edgbaston.
At School, Philip was an accomplished linguist, as well as a Lance Corporal in the Officer Training Corps.
Philip was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery on 23rd December 1915, and was sent to France a year later. He was awarded the Military Cross for action in June 1917, and his citation reads: “For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in accompanying another officer and a sergeant into a gun emplacement in which a serious explosion had taken place, bringing out the killed and wounded and extinguishing a fire caused by the explosion amongst the ammunition.” Philip was killed by shellfire at Ypres on 23rd July 1917 while engaged in night-firing, aged twenty. He reached the rank of Lieutenant, and is buried in Brandhoek Cemetery, Flanders. He left his estate of £257 to his father, who applied for his late son’s medals in 1919.