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Captain Cecil Francis Burney ROLT (159811)
23rd Hussars, Royal Armoured Corps Date of birth: 22nd June 1920 Date of death: 6th April 1945 Killed in action aged 24 Buried at Becklingen War Cemetery Plot 10 Row J Grave 10
Cecil Francis Burney "Nick" Rolt was born in South Africa on the 22nd of June 1920 the youngest son of the Very Reverend Cecil Henry Rolt, Dean of Cape Town in South Africa, and Mary (nee Foxley-Norris) Rolt of Tudor House, Terling in Essex. He was educated at Lancing College where he was in Heads House from September 1933 to July 1937. He was a member of the Cricket XI in 1937 and was appointed as a Prefect the same year. He went on to Grenoble University. He attended the Royal Military College Sandhurst and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Armoured Corps on the 7th of December 1940. He was promoted to Lieutenant on the 7th of June 1942 and to temporary Captain on the 29th of February 1944. The 23rd Hussars landed in Normandy equipped with Sherman tanks but in January 1945 they re-equipped with Comet Cromwell tanks. On the 23rd of March 1945 the 23rd Hussars crossed the German border at Velno and crossed the Dortmund/Ems Canal on the 31st. They advanced to the River Weser on the 5th of April where they encountered resistance from German units in and around the town of Stolzenau. According to records they lost two tanks "in early April" when both were hit in their engine compartments around "morning teatime" He was married to Hon Lavinia Mary Yolande (nee Lyttleton) on the 15th of February 1945. Following his death she was remarried to Major John Edward Dennys MC in 1949. He is commemorated on the memorial at the Royal Military College Sandhurst and on the war memorial at Terling.

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