Vice Admiral Sir Michael Frampton Fell, (17 January 1918 – 3 December 1976) was a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

officer who served as

Flag Officer, Carriers Flag Officer, Carriers and Amphibious Ships (FOCAS) was a senior Royal Navy post that existed from 1970 to 1979. However, its antecedents date to 1931. A Flag Officer with specific responsibilities for command of aircraft carriers within the Roy ...

from 1968 to 1970.

Early life and education

Fell was born in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

, British India, the younger son of Herbert Leigh Fell and Winifred Adeline Fell. He was educated at

Harrow School (The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God) , established = (Royal Charter) , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school , religion = Church of E ...

Naval career

Fell joined the

as a

midshipman A midshipman is an officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Canada (Naval Cadet), Australia, Bangladesh, Namibia, New Zealand, South Afr ...

in July 1938. After qualifying as a pilot, he became commanding officer of 805 Naval Air Squadron in the Western Desert in late 1941 during the Second World War. He went on to command 878 Naval Air Squadron in Sicily from early 1943 before becoming air commander on the

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a ...

, in which role he led the attacks on the German battleship ''Tirpitz'' as part of the Home Fleet Strike force of Operation ''Tungsten'', and then became air commander on the aircraft carrier . Fell next served as air commander on the aircraft carrier during the Korean War. He went on to be commanding officer of the

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...

in 1957, station commander of RNAS Lossiemouth in 1958 and commanding officer of the frigate in 1961. After that he became chief of staff to the Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth in 1963, commanding officer of the aircraft carrier in 1965 and Flag Officer, Gibraltar in 1966. His final appointments were as

in 1968, and as

Flag Officer Naval Air Command N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...

in 1970 after promotion to vice admiral on 10 June 1970. He was then chief of staff to the Commander Allied Naval Forces Southern Europe from 1972 before retiring in 1974.

Personal life

In 1948, Fell married Elise "Elsie" Joan McLauchlan-Slater. Fell collapsed and died at the wheel of his car on 3 December 1976, near his home at Stoughton, West Sussex. Lady Fell died on 2 March 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fell, Michael 1918 births 1976 deaths People educated at Harrow School Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Fleet Air Arm aviators Recipients of the Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom) Royal Navy vice admirals Royal Navy officers of World War II Royal Navy personnel of the Korean War Fleet Air Arm personnel of World War II People from Stoughton, West Sussex British people in colonial India Military personnel of British India