A Royal Navy veteran who survived the sinking of a freighter off France during the Second World War has died at the age of 98 just a few days before the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
Able Seaman Lewis Curl, a member of the Bognor Regis branch of the Royal Naval Association, died at St Richard’s Hospital in Chichester, West Sussex, on May 22.
A Royal Navy spokeswoman said that AB Curl was a D-Day veteran who served with the Royal Navy from 1942 to 1946.
She said that after he had been deployed as a cypher coder on HMS Belfast, he returned on leave to Portsmouth.
But a telegram awaited him and he was recalled to join HMS Dacres off Le Havre.
He travelled on a freighter carrying a load of army lorries, transport and fuel which was bombed and sunk off the French coast.
Describing his survival, the Royal Navy spokeswoman said: “AB Curl jumped into an amphibious vehicle but that was quickly overloaded and started to sink.
“As AB Curl swam away, a launch appeared and he was landed ashore.
“After wading ashore and drying out, he proceeded along the coast in the dark, walking and obtaining lifts on an army vehicle, finally arriving at the naval base where he was taken by launch to HMS Dacres, who lay at anchor just off shore.
“Able seamen do not get piped aboard ship, but 19-year-old Able Seaman Lewis Curl did.
“An officer took him to one side and told him the ship’s company had bets on if he was going to make it. The odds were against him.”
HMS Dacres then left for the Bay of Biscay for submarine boat surveillance and action and following its return to Portsmouth AB Curl was posted to Rosyth to join HMS Loch Glendhu and he returned to the Bay of Biscay.
For VE Day in 1945, AB Curl was in Glasgow before he returned to Portsmouth where he joined HMS Swiftsure bound for the Far East.
The Royal Navy spokeswoman said: “He volunteered for night searching for the presence of Japanese personnel and became infected by a tropical disease while ashore.
“The hospital he was in was then evacuated when the Japanese came too close.
“AB Curl was left in the ward as he was ‘too ill to move’. The staff returned a week later to find he was the only remaining survivor out of the four left behind. After convalescing, he was repatriated back to the UK on HMS Barfleur.”
AB Curl, who also served in HMS Mercury, was awarded the 1938/45 Medal, the Victory Medal, Atlantic Star and Bar, Burma Star, France and Germany Star, and Civil Medal.