Gasson, FAB

Flight Lieutenant Fitzroy Arthur Bell Gasson

Fitzroy was born on September 20th 1899 in Queenstown in the Cape Colony, modern day South Africa, the son of merchant George Gasson. By the time Fitzroy came to the College from the Prep, the family were settled back in London, however, and he had been preceded in coming to Dulwich by two elder brothers, Lionel and Cecil. After five years at the College, during the last of which he was in the 2nd XI for cricket, he left in the summer of 1917.
Straight after leaving Fitzroy took up a position in what was then the Royal Naval Air Service, and spent the next five months undergoing training at sites such as Greenwich, Eastbourne and Cranwell. In February 1918 he was granted a commission as Flight Sub-Lieutenant; two months later, shortly after being absorbed into the newly created Royal Air Force, he was promoted to Flight Lieutenant. It was in this role that he proceeded overseas in May, being stationed with the 202nd Squadron at Dunkirk, where he was mostly engaged in reconnaissance and escort duty over the Channel ports of Ostend and Zeebrugge. It was whilst involved in an aerial dogfight above these that his plane went missing on September 26th 1918, as a result of which he was officially declared to have lost his life.