Keith Brian Fitton - 1936-2006
Keith Fitton spent much of the last 10 years of his life working for philately, trying to put back into it some of the value and interest he had enjoyed while working abroad earlier in his career. At the time of his death, he was a member of Council of the Association of British Philatelic Societies sitting also on the Executive Committee, a Vice-President of the Forces Postal History Society, Chairman of the British Aerophilatelic Federation, Honorary Secretary (and past Chairman) of the Indian Ocean Study Circle, a Fellow and the Curator of the Society of Postal Historians and a Fellow and the Honorary Secretary of the Royal Philatelic Society London (RPSL). It was during his time as an officer of the RPSL that it voted to permit professionals once again to be members while several other modernising influences were also introduced.
A prolific writer of articles for the journals of these societies, Fitton researched and published several handbooks on different aspects of Seychelles postal history and stamps, which remain the definitive works. He was the Commissioner General for The Stamp Show 2000 in London and had served as the UK National Commissioner at several world exhibitions abroad, winning medals for his own exhibits of Seychelles air mails on which he was an acknowledged authority. He was also a UK national judge.
Born in 1936, Keith spent most of the war years at a boarding school in Sussex entering the City of London School in 1944 where he remained until 1954 studying classical languages and representing the school at boxing and fencing. In 1954, he was runner-up in the Public Schools Fencing Championships at Sabre.
During National Service he was commissioned into the 1st Royal Tank Regiment seeing service as a Troop Leader in the Canal Zone in 1955-56 and was in the last armoured squadron to leave the zone before the Suez war. He had a narrow escape from an untimely death when, as a passenger in an AOP Auster about to take off, he was summoned to take over as Orderly Officer. A fellow officer took his place but the Auster crashed soon after take-off, sadly killing both on board.