The Heroes of Phantom - Colonel Julian Fane

Julian Patrick Fane was born in London on February 17 1921 and at the outbreak of WW2 was commissioned into the 2nd Battalion the Gloucestershire (2GR) Regiment serving in Belgium. He was one of the few survivors of the desperate rear-guard action around Cassel, near Lille, to delay the German advance and enable the bulk of the British Army to escape from Dunkirk. He received the first of his MCs for his part in the fighting withdrawal.

On his return to England, he joined GHQ Liaison Regiment, known as Phantom, and served with them on the Dieppe raid, in North Africa and in Sicily. In Tunisia, following the capture of Bizerte in May 1943, he was awarded the Croix de Guerre  in recognition of the skill demonstrated by his Phantom patrol. A parachuting accident in September 1943, in which he fractured three vertebrae and broke several bones in his foot, put him out of action and ended his service with Phantom. He re-joined 2 GR serving as a company commander in the campaign in north-west Europe and remaining in the army, serving in Palestine, Malaya and the Suez. He was the Commanding Officer of The Life Guards from 1962 to 1964 and left the army in 1968, when he embarked on a second successful career in banking. He died in 2013.