ABSTRACT
As a young man he served five years as an apprentice (cadet) in the merchant marine, but went no further. He joined the RNVR as a seaman and was commissioned in 1941. By June 1942 he had his first command, MGB 21, and won his first DSC in a ferocious encounter with German E-boats attacking a convoy in the North Sea. While commanding MGB 122 he was wounded, and received an MiD, for an attack which sank two enemy minesweepers.
