Norwich solicitor Michael Chittock, who fought with distinction in the second world war, has died aged 91.

Norwich solicitor Michael Chittock, who fought with distinction in the second world war, has died aged 91.

He was the third generation to head the family firm, which was started by his grandfather in 1862.

Educated at Charterhouse, he went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, to read law. Illness prevented his graduation but he became articled to his father, Gilbert Carsey Chittock.

In 1939, as a newly-qualified solicitor, he was about to join the family firm of Chittock and Chittock. However, as a territorial officer in the Royal Norfolk Regiment, he was called up shortly before the outbreak of war and joined the 6th Battalion, then stationed along the coast.

He was seconded in 1940 to the Corps of Military Police and later was appointed assistant provost marshal as major with the 15th Scottish Division. He took part in the Normandy landings in June, 1944 and saw constant action in the early days of the D-Day campaign.

He was twice mentioned in dispatches for gallantry.

As the Allies broke out and moved into Belgium and Holland, he was given the task of getting a huge military convoy, then under intense artillery bombardment, across the River Meuse. He stuck to the task and the crossing was achieved. He was awarded the Military Cross for this action.

After the war, he joined the family firm with his uncle and remained there until his retirement in 1977. Over the years it expanded in size, becoming the firm of Daynes Chittock and Back.

Mr Chittock was a director of a number of companies and a founder-member of Norfolk and Norwich Marriage Guidance Council. He was secretary of the county branch of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, secretary of the Norfolk and Norwich branch of the service fami-lies' association, SSAFA, and president of the Norfolk and Nor-wich Solicitors Amicable Society.

Mr Chittock was a keen fly fisherman and sailed his White Boat class Oleander on the Broads.

Upon retirement, he painted in watercolours, exhibiting and holding one-man shows in Norwich, Ipswich and Sheringham as well as at the Mall Galleries in London during the Royal Society of British Artists' annual exhibitions.

In 1940, he married Jill Hamilton Wilson, who died in 1999. He is survived by a daughter, two sons, five granddaughters, a step- grandson and a great grandson.