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My mother's brother, Eric Gammon, who was known as Bill, was a crew member on the Medway Queen which had been commandeered on minesweeping duties. When the order came to make their way to the channel, Bill, who was a licensed boatman and fisherman as well as boat builder, in Herne Bay in Kent, obtained permission to take his own boat which was either the Eskimo or the Albatross to Dunkirk.

Bill became ill with schizophrenia in 1953, so it has been difficult to gain a clear picture, but in his more lucid moments he was able to recount some of the horror in vivid detail.

The channel was extremely calm, most unlike the channel he was used to and as they sailed towards Dunkirk the sky was alight with the town on fire. Bill was not able to take his boat inshore under power because of the debris and dead in the water so he rowed making three trips in all before he had to return across the channel because he was low on fuel.

One observation he made was that it was very difficult for the royal navy to get inshore in lifeboats because they did not have crew members who could row effectively. On every trip, his boat was mobbed and was in great danger of being capsized which meant that he had to have someone with a lump of wood hitting soldiers once he had a full compliment of passengers.

On his last trip across the channel he strung a knotted rope from the stern of his boat for soldiers to hang on. He estimated there were up to a hundred at the start but only 23 made it to Dover.

Many of his passengers died en route and he had to throw them overboard at regular intervals to make room for more able bodied.

Bill was extremely ill on his return with a strangulated hernia which demanded urgent, life saving surgery.

Uncle Bill then joined the RAF and finished his war as an airframe fitter in Blackpool. I believe he was a man of great courage, but would have been a conscientious objector if he had had the nerve.His father was a time served petty officer and his two brothers and sister were already in service so he bowed to peer pressure, having to join the airforce because the navy queue was full on the day he went to volunteer.

He died aged eighty three in August 2003.

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