page_title: Charles Lightoller
section_title: Second World War
hierarchical_section_title: Charles Lightoller / Second World War
caption_attribution_description: English: Charles Lightoller was a Titanic survivor and Royal Naval officer. The memorial is in Riverdale Gardens Twickenham, near Richmond Lock, West London
context_page_description: Charles Herbert Lightoller, DSC & Bar, RD, RNR was the second officer on board the RMS Titanic and a decorated Royal Navy officer. He was the most senior member of the crew to survive the Titanic disaster. As the officer in charge of loading passengers into lifeboats on the port side, Lightoller strictly enforced the women and children only protocol, not allowing any male passengers to board the lifeboats unless they were needed as auxiliary seamen. Lightoller served as a commanding officer of the Royal Navy during World War I and was twice decorated for gallantry. During World War II, in retirement, he provided and sailed as a volunteer on one of the "little ships" that played a part in the Dunkirk evacuation. Rather than allow his motoryacht to be requisitioned by the Admiralty, he sailed the vessel to Dunkirk personally and repatriated 127 British servicemen.
context_section_description: The retired Lightoller did not turn his back on sailing altogether, as he eventually purchased a private motor yacht, Sundowner in 1929. In 1940, he, together with his son Roger and a young Sea Scout named Gerald Ashcroft, crossed the English Channel in Sundowner to assist in the Dunkirk evacuation. In a boat licensed to carry 21 passengers, Lightoller and his crew brought back 127 servicemen. On the return journey, Lightoller evaded gunfire from enemy aircraft, using a technique described to him by his youngest son, Herbert, who had joined the RAF and been killed earlier in the war. Gerald Ashcroft later recalled "We attracted the attention of a Stuka dive bomber. Commander Lightoller stood up in the bow and I stood alongside the wheelhouse. Commander Lightoller kept his eye on the Stuka till the last second – then he sang out to me "Hard a port!" and I sang out to Roger and we turned very sharply. The bomb landed on our starboard side." 
  At the time of the evacuation Lightoller's second son Trevor was a serving Second Lieutenant with Bernard Montgomery's 3rd Division which had retreated towards Dunkirk. Unknown to Lightoller senior, Trevor had already been evacuated 48 hours before Sundowner reached Dunkirk.
  For his actions during the evacuation, Charles Lightoller received a mention in despatches in 1944. His actions inspired the character of "Mr. Dawson" in Christopher Nolan's 2017 film, Dunkirk, portrayed by Academy Award Winner Mark Rylance. Sundowner is now preserved by Ramsgate Maritime Museum.
  After the Second World War, Lightoller managed a small boatyard in Twickenham, West London, called Richmond Slipways, which built motor launches for the river police.
caption: Information board in Twickenham near the Richmond Slipways where Lightoller lived and worked after 1947
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