Cockleshell Hero dies in hospital at age of 95

One of our oldest old boys, Raymond Quick, sadly passed away in September aged 95 years. He first attended the School in Greenwich and transferred to Holbrook in 1933. He was a key member of the famous Cockleshell Heroes wartime mission and a Royal Navy telegraphist.

Devon-born Mr Quick, of Gloucester Avenue, Moulsham Lodge, died at Broomfield Hospital on Tuesday, September 20, after being admitted with an infection four weeks earlier.​ His carer, Mrs Iris Walker, said: "Ray was brave and heroic to the very end. I miss him terribly already."

Mr Quick was the last surviving submariner to take part in Operation Frankton, a mission which Sir Winston Churchill claimed had shortened the Second World War by six months. In 1942, ten Royal Marines – who became known as the Cockleshell Heroes – were launched from his T-Class submarine HMS Tuna in five tiny 'cockle' canoes to attach limpet mines on shipping in Bordeaux harbour. Admiral Louis Mountbatten described it as the most courageous and imaginative of all the raids ever carried out by the Armed Forces and they crippled the enemy. However, two of the men drowned, six were executed by the Germans, and one has since died.Their bravery was at last commemorated earlier this year with a permanent memorial in Bordeaux which also reflects the role of HMS Tuna and her men, as well as three French resistance fighters – but Mr Quick was not well enough to attend the unveiling ceremony in March.

His wartime role as chief petty officer telegraphist won him the Distinguished Service Medal, but, not for Operation Frankton. It was for his 'outstanding coolness, cheerfulness and skill whilst serving on HMS Tuna in five arduous patrols and a brilliant and successful attack on a German U-boat on April 7, 1943.'

Mr Quick, who suffered from dementia, was lucid while talking about his submarine exploits, having kept the stories to himself in the post-war years, when the Essex Chronicle featured his story in March. Mrs Walker said: "Raymond hoped to go to France for the ceremony, but though he had sight, hearing and mobility challenges, his heart was there."

Mr Quick settled in Chelmsford after the war and worked for Marconi before retiring with his late wife, Eileen, to Paignton. Mrs Walker added: "Our spouses both died at the same time and due to his infirmities I became Raymond's carer, but I never tired of hearing his war stories."

Mr Quick thoroughly detested the 1954 movie The Cockleshell Heroes, starring Trevor Howard, Victor Maddern and Christopher Lee. The modest hero said he was "scared out of his wits" most of the time, especially when his submarine was forced to spend 36 hours at the bottom of the Mediterranean, off Cyprus, avoiding Nazi hunters. He expressed amazement that he survived the war, having sailed in a succession of five subs, all of which were lost after he was transferred, concluding hostilities safely on board HMS Tuna.