Captain Denis JERMAIN D.S.C., * Royal Navy

Denis Jermain was one of the small band of RN officers who were the backbone of Coastal Forces in the early years of WW II, before the RNVR really started to make its presence known. His exploits will be found in Peter Scott’s book, ‘The Battle of the Narrow Seas’, and I remember as a 15-year-old, being thrilled by the account of an action in the Channel in which he nipped smartly across the bows of a German Flak trawler or something similar, dropping a depth-charge as he went, which blew thye bows off the enemy. He was also a house officer at Dartmouth (Hawke house), and taught me all about power-boat handling on the river, which formed the basis of any ship-handling skill which I may have possessed