Captain W.D.S. (‘Knocker’) WHITE Royal Navy

‘Knocker’ (his real name was William) was an “old Roedean girl”, having qualified as a Torpedo officer in 1942, when the Vernon was bombed out of Portsmouth, and moved for the duration of the war into the buildings of the well-known girl’s school at Brighton. When, in 1946, the Electrical branch was created out of the Torpedo branch and the specialists who had entered during the war, he stayed with the seaman side of the branch, and became qualified TAS. He was promoted to Commander in 1952 and Captain in 1958. He was greatly interested in the history of his alma mater, Vernon, and was one of the first to join Rear-Admiral ‘Nicho’ Poland in compiling its history, along with that of the T and TAS branches.