Charles Lightoller (1874-1952) Titanic survivor, WW1 veteran, and Dunkirk hero.

Charles Lightoller 1874-1952
Titanic survivor, World War I veteran, and Dunkirk hero, Lightoller was born in Chorley, Lancashire. He commenced his seafaring career as a seaman at the age of thirteen and experienced a shipwreck at fifteen, spending 88 days stranded on Île Saint-Paul in the Indian Ocean. His early career with the White Star Line began in 1900. Serving as the 2nd Officer on the R.M.S. Titanic, he was responsible for an even number of lifeboats on the port side during the ship's tragic final night. Lightoller remained aboard the Titanic until the end, becoming trapped underwater until a boiler explosion freed him. He survived by clinging to a capsized raft, where he and thirty men climbed onto an overturned collapsible boat and paddled throughout the night. At dawn, the RMS Carpathia arrived and began rescuing survivors. Lightoller assisted all survivors aboard his life raft before climbing aboard himself, ultimately becoming the last living Titanic survivor to be rescued. During World War I, he served in the Royal Navy as captain of the British torpedo boat HMTB 117, where he successfully destroyed the German Zeppelin L31, earning the Distinguished Service Cross. After the war, in 1919, he returned to the White Star Line and retired in the early 1930s, subsequently starting a small boatyard in the Thames estuary. On June 1, 1940, during "Operation Dynamo," he participated in the rescue of British soldiers at the French port of Dunkirk during the Dunkirk evacuation, using his private motor yacht, Sundowner, to successfully rescue a total of 130 men despite the craft's small size. Throughout the remainder of World War II, the Royal Navy engaged him to work with the Small Vessel Pool. He later operated a boatyard named Richmond Slipways, where he built motor launches for the London River Police. Lightoller passed away in Richmond, London, at the age of 78.

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