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Thomas William Brown GM ( 1926 – 13 February 1945) English recipient of the George Medal, and is the youngest person to have ever received that award. In October 1942, as a NAAFI canteen assistant, he was involved in the action between ''Petard'' and , being one of three men to board the sinking submarine in an effort to retrieve vital documents, and was the only one of the three to survive. These documents would later lead the Bletchley Park codebreakers to crack the German Enigma code. After this heroic deed, it was revealed that he was underage to be at sea. He returned home to North Shields. In 1945 he died from injuries sustained while rescuing his sister Maureen from a house fire in South Shields whilst on leave from HMS ''Belfast''. His family were presented with his medal by King George VI in 1945, and later presented it to the NAAFI in 1985. ==NAAFI career== At the age of 15, Brown joined the NAAFI and was assigned as a Canteen Assistant onboard , a P class destroyer, for service during World War II. Unlike other services, the NAAFI only accepted men from the age of 17 onwards, so Brown had to lie about his age to join.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/16/a5147516.shtml )〕 On 30 October 1942, ''Petard'' was in the waters off the coast of Port Said, Egypt.〔 They were being sent to relieve , and to investigate radar contact with a submarine along with , , , and Vickers Wellesley light bombers of No. 47 Squadron RAF. After ten hours of depth charge attacks, ''U-559'' came to the surface,〔 it being identified by its distinctive white donkey emblem on its conning tower. ''Petard'' fired her 4–inch guns at the submarine, causing such damage that the crew abandoned ship.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.naafi.co.uk/Tommy+Brown+GM.php )〕 Petard then launched a boarding party in a seaboat.〔 Lieutenant Francis Anthony Blair Fasson and Able Seaman Colin Grazier dived into the sea and swam to the submarine, with Brown following them over.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-10DD-49P-Petard.htm )〕 The German crew had opened the boat's seacocks, and water was pouring into the vessel.〔 The two Navy men made their way into the captain's cabin where Fasson found a set of keys. They unlocked drawers〔 and found two code books: the Short Weather Cipher and Short Signal Book.〔 Brown carried these documents up the iron ladder of the U-boat's conning tower to ''Petards whaler, climbing with one hand while holding the documents in the other. After his third trip down and up the ladder, he called for his shipmates to get out of the boat, but the submarine sank before they could escape. Brown himself was dragged under with the submarine, but managed to fight his way back to the surface and was picked up by the whaler. He was promoted to Senior Canteen Assistant following the incident.〔 Due to the attention arising from his actions in the incident with ''U-559'', his age became known to the authorities. That ended his posting aboard ''Petard'',〔 but was not discharged from the NAAFI.〔 He returned to his family in North Shields, and later returned to sea on board .〔 In 1945, when he was home on shore leave from ''Belfast'', a fire broke out in the family home at South Shields. Brown died while attempting to rescue his youngest sister Maureen.〔 He was buried with full military honours in Tynemouth Cemetery.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2810738 )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tommy Brown (NAAFI assistant)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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