Michael Forster FENWICK [1920-1941]

UK Birth Index registered Quarter 1 1920 in Marylebone London Michael Forster Fenwick

Commonwealth War Graves

Second Lieutenant 172092  Michael Forster Fenwick Second Battalion Royal Scots died 19 December 1941 Sai Wan Memorial

Scotland National War Memorial

Michael Forster Fenwick born London died 19 December 1941 Far East

LIEUTENANT MICHAEL FORSTER FENWICK

After receiving the solitary intimation that Michael Fenwick was " missing " as a result of the affair at Hong-Kong, his family and friends endured one year of suspense before learning, early this spring, of his having been killed in action in the defence of the island, December 19th, 1941. On that date the fighting was probably still on the mainland around Kowloon where, according to the reports in the press, the Royal Scots— Michael Fenwick's regiment—suffered heavily in the engagement. Very much the junior subaltern of his battalion he died at the age of twenty-one. R.I.P.

Into his twenty-one years Fenwick was able to compress a rich and varied experience of life. He was gifted with a wealth of natural endowments, both of body and mind, to say nothing of particular gifts of grace. Though he was shy to reveal the extent of his talents, he would put them generously to the service of others ; and without fuss he strove, as a Christian, to exercise his talents and to live each part of his life in the love of God. His influence as an apostle is certain.

With his sense of values and outlook more fully developed than is perhaps normal at school in one of his age, Michael Fenwick had the good sense and humility to judge when not to press his own point of view. There was no yielding to the temptation of dissociating himself from the common life as it is led at school. If this were a problem he faced it squarely. Though at times he was at pains to conceal his self-consciousness, he took part loyally, if not always with equal success, in the round of competitions, games and athletics arranged for his House, St Aidan's. There was a generosity in his character which won him the appreciation and friendship of many, both in the school as later amongst the troops he was to command. His intimate friends never cease to wonder at his goodness and charm, at his catholic capacity for enjoyment, at the spirit of espieglerie that was properly his own.

Fenwick's interests were mainly those of the mind. He gave promise of becoming a writer and poet of no small merit. Head Boy at Dulwich Preparatory School, he arrived at Ampleforth as a scholar in September 1933. By 1936 he had reached the Upper Sixth and was excelling in the writing of Latin and Greek verse. In the following year he won a classical scholarship at Oxford and began residence at Lincoln College in October 1938. The scope of his reading was wide and from boyhood he was familiar with English literature and drama, and all the while he developed a discerning and practical bent for music.

This talent in music made him sought for as a treble in the church choir, as a madrigal singer on Exhibition occasions, as player or conductor in the inter-House competitions, and finally, at the University, as one specially versed in the ins and outs of eighteenth century music.

Examples of his own poetry are rare. One or two pieces of English verse give glimpses of his aspirations or tell of some sombre trial that was sent to beset his spirit. The grandest work is his translation of the Veni Creator, which may be classed with the best ever done.

He had it in his sensitive nature to look upon the world and upon mankind with the eyes and insight of a poet. Writing from abroad he could describe succinctly and brilliantly the changing colours of sea and sky : the rising of the tropic moon " popping up impudent and huge from out of the sea like a setting for Cavalcade " : the dedication in his pocket edition of Virgil : the outcropping of Catholic life on board a transport : the temper and turn-out of the men on the parade-ground at the Murray Barracks, Hong-Kong : the stinking smell of the rice-fields : the nostalgic memories of scenes nearer home, a Cotswold farm, the Byland inn.

His Oxford career was abruptly closed. He was called up to join an O.C.T.U. in North Wales. This was in 1940. Not long after being commissioned into the Royal Scots Regiment he embarked, in the summer of 1941, for the Far East. He was garrisoned at Hong-Kong. In the December of the same year he was killed.

Michael Fenwick, little though he knew it, was an adornment to his home, to his school and wherever his influence came to bear. His friends who taught him here may console themselves with the reflection that he was choosing to return to Ampleforth to be a priest.

To his mother and brother we offer our deepest sympathy, and join ourselves with them in mourning and praying for him. 

(Source: Ampleforth Journal, volume 48, pages 79-80)

-- Kenneth