大象传媒

Although I am not in possession of all the relevant details. I hoped that my memories of the events portrayed might be of some interest to your readers.I was born in February 1941 and so have only conversations with my family to base my story on. Nevertheless,to the best of my knowledge and belief, the facts are true.

My mother's younger brother(there came to be 10 in the family-6 sons and 4 daughters)joined the Merchant Navy early in the War years by declaring himself to be older than he actually was.I am not sure how long he had actually served before the incident that led to him being the(reportedly) youngest ever recipient of the British Empire Medal occurred.However I do recall seeing a photograph of his presentation at Buckingham Palace by His Majesty King George VI.
The full story of how he came to win this award was never recounted to me but Iwas told that whilst he was serving in a ship (I believe it was named the "Scottish Heather")they were torpedoed by a German U-boat.It was whilst they were in convoy en route from the UK to Murmansk in Russia.Whilst the ship did not sink immediately she must have become at least partially submerged because my uncle earned his award for his bravery in diving into the freezing waters several times with a knife in his teeth to try and cut free a life-boat that had become entangled. When he finally succeeded the lifeboat bobbed to the surface(all lifeboats incorporate buoyancy tanks in their construction)and the crew members were able to board it and remain relatively safe until they were picked up by another ship.
I have no means of verifying this story as all who would have known it first-hand are now deceased and I have long lost touch with my Uncle's family, some of whom I am sure are still living in Newcastle-upon- Tyne.

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