Battles and wars World War II Years of service 1940-1944 | Service number 242974 Name Simmon Latutin Unit Somalia Gendarmerie | |
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Died December 30, 1944, Mogadishu, Somalia | ||
Captain Simmon Latutin GC (25 July 1916 – 30 December 1944) was a British Army officer who was posthumously awarded the George Cross, the highest British (and Commonwealth) award for bravery out of combat. He won his award for the gallantry he showed in rescuing two comrades, and attempting to save a boy, from a blazing ammunition store on 29 December 1944 in Mogadishu, Somaliland.
He was commissioned into The Somerset Light Infantry in 1942, and was seconded to the Somalia Gendarmerie at the time of his GC action. He died of his burns the next day. He was born on 25 July 1916 in London and had been educated at Regent Street Polytechnic and the Royal Academy of Music, where a memorial to him was unveiled in 2006. Notice of his award appeared in a supplement to the London Gazette of the 6 September 1946, dated 10 September 1946. He is buried in the Nairobi war cemetery Kenya.
George Cross citation
Latutin's George Cross citation appeared in the London Gazette on 6 August 1946:
The King has been graciously pleased to approve the posthumous award of the George Cross in recognition of most conspicuous gallantry in carrying out hazardous work in a very brave manner to Captain Simmon Latutin 242974 Somalia Gendarmerie (Harrow Middlesex).