Signalman aboard the Medway Queen during the Dunkirk evacuation, was Eric Woodroffe. At his home in Tyler Hill, near Canterbury, he told me that the vessel was one of five paddle steamers helping to clear a minefield off the Dutch Coast.

“The mines were floating just below the surface,” he said. “We towed a wire which would get caught up in the mine and drag it to the surface. It could then be exploded with a shot from a rifle.”

The paddlers, with unwarlike names such as Gracie Fields and Brighton Belle, were based at Dover, and when the call came to head to Dunkirk, were among the first to respond.

“Our lead ship was HMS Sandown, which had been an Isle of Wight ferry before the War. I took signals from her, giving us information about what course to steer and what speed to go at. But also from Dover Castle where there was a signal station.

“There were a lot of sandbanks as we neared the coast at Dunkirk. But the paddle steamers had a very shallow draught so could skim across many of them. We went across at night, and could see the burning buildings and the smoke, long before we got there. As it got lighter, we could see long lines of men queuing up on the beach.

“We went in as close as possible, but then our boat had to be rowed repeatedly back and forth to the beach, to bring men off. A few enemy aircraft dropped bombs near us, but I don’t remember that first day being a terribly difficult one. Later we had a lot more bombing and the soldiers on the beaches were bombed relentlessly.

“I had to stay at my signals post so didn’t get involved in getting soldiers on board. But I know they were exhausted. Some were wounded and taken below. We loaded as many as we could and then headed back to England. Mostly we went into Ramsgate, because the harbour there was shallower, and we could get in more easily than the destroyers.

“The second trip was to La Panne just up the coast from Dunkirk. After that we picked men up from the mole at Dunkirk. The mole was badly damaged, and men had to climb down the woodwork from which it was built, to get on board.

“There was a lot more shipping by then, including a cruiser which had been sunk alongside the mole.

“At this stage we began to realise the importance of what we were involved in, and how serious it would be for the country if we failed to bring out army home. We had to succeed if the war was not to be lost. There was a feeling that we were taking part in one of the great events in history. One man said: ‘This is going to stand beside the defeat of the Spanish Armada.’

“We made seven trips in all. Two of the paddle steamers were sunk on their way across. The Brighton Belle was bombed, and I remember watching her sinking. We were able to take off her crew.

“Sometimes there was a dense mist which could be an absolute lifesaver, because we couldn’t be seen from the air. But on one occasion bombs fell around us despite the mist. We realised our mast was sticking out of the mist.

“A giveaway at night could be the phosphorescence churned up by our propeller. We had to drip oil on the water to smooth the water behind us.

“We were one of the few ships that went on the last trip, our seventh. Many of the men were exhausted by this point. I was alright because I’d had to stick to my signals post, so was less exhausted, although we had all had very little sleep.”

The return leg of that last trip took much longer than usual, because the ship was damaged coming out of Dunkirk harbour. Some thought she had been lost. Eventually she limped into Dover to a tumult of sirens from other ships moored there.

After the War Eric went on to be bursar at Gordonstoun School, in Scotland and later at St Edmund’s School, Canterbury.

A fuller account of the Medway Queen’s Dunkirk heroism which appear later in this series.