b. 04/08/1877 Rainham, Kent. d. 14/04/1970 Tavistock, Devon.
DATE OF AM ACTION: 14/12/1917 Margate, Kent.
Charles was born in Rainham, Kent, the son of Alfred and Eliza Fiske (nee Wright). He had four sisters and two brothers. He grew up in Kent and was a keen sportsman in his youth, taking up tennis, golf and rowing. On 17th June 1908, at St Alban’s, Streatham Park, he married Florence Maud Shirvill. Tragically, she died less than a year later. By the time of the 1911 Census, Charles was an Assistant School Master, living in Gillingham, Kent. He served in the 5th Battalion, East Kent Regiment during the Great War. Although there is no citation for the award, Captain Fiske also was awarded the Military Cross in 1919. After the war Captain Fiske returned to education, and became a Master at the Dockyard School, Chatham, before transferring to Portsmouth Dockyard School as Senior Master in 1925. He contributed widely to local social work in Portsmouth, and in WW2 he appears to have joined the police.He retired to Devon, where he died in 1970.
AM CITATION:
On the 14th December, 1917, while bombing practice was being carried out at Margate under the supervision of Captain Fiske, a man threw a live bomb which failed to clear the parapet and fell back into the pit. Captain Fiske at once placed himself under cover expecting that the man would do likewise. On finding, however, that the man had lost his head and w.as unable to move, Captain Fiske ran back into the pit, seized the man, forced him into a corner and covered him with his own body. In the subsequent explosion Captain Fiske was wounded in both thighs. Captain Fiske by his gallant action iindoubtedly saved the man from death or severe injury.
BURIAL LOCATION: UNKNOWN.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: PRIVATELY HELD. (SOLD FOR £5,000 ON 18/11/2020)
