Tommy Brown ( GM ) 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 " U - 559 " , 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 HMS " Petard " , 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 . On 30 October 1942 , " Petard " was in the waters off the coast of Port Said , Egypt . They were being sent to relieve HMS " Hero " , and to investigate radar contact with a submarine along with HMS " Pakenham " , HMS " Dulverton " , HMS " Hurworth " , and Vickers Wellesley light bomber s 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 . 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 . The German crew had opened the boat ' s seacock s , 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 " Petard " ' s 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 escpe . 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 HMS " Belfast " . 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 . Legacy . For their actions , Fasson and Grazier were posthumously awarded the George Cross . Being a civilian due to his NAAFI employment , Brown was awarded the George Medal . His mother Margaret and brother Stanley travelled to London to receive his medal on his behalf after Brown ' s death in 1945 . Prior to being told about the presentation ceremony , his mother hadn ' t been told that Brown had received a medal for his actions . Unknown to Brown , the documents that he , Fasson , and Grazier retrieved were extremely valuable in breaking the German Enigma code . They allowed British codebreakers to attack the " Triton " key used by the U - boats , which had been invulnerable for nine months . Allied convoys in the Atlantic could be directed away from known U - boat locations . Winston Churchill wrote that the actions of the crew of " Petard " were crucial to the outcome of the war . Brown never knew the contents of those documents ; information relating to Enigma was not released till decades after his death . In 1985 , his brothers Stan and David presented the NAAFI with Brown ' s medals , to be displayed at the Bletchley Park Museum of codebreaking in Buckinghamshire . In 1987 , a stained glass window was dedicated to his memory in his home town at the Saville Exchange building . The museum has since closed , and Brown ' s medals are now on display at the NAAFI headquarters in Darlington . The were brought there to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the NAAFI in April 2010 , with a ceremony being held to celebrate the return of Brown ' s medal to the North East . In attendance were five of his siblings , Lillian , Sylvia , Norman , Nancy , and Albert .