Teddy Gueritz Rear Admiral Edward Findlay " Teddy " Gueritz , ( 8 September 1919 – 21 December 2008 ) was a long - serving Royal Navy officer . From D - Day , 6 June 1944 , he served as beachmaster on Sword Beach , organising the flow of men and materiel into the beachhead , including 30 , 000 troops on the first day . 19 days later he was severely wounded and evacuated to the United Kingdom where he required life - saving surgery . He had previously served in a similar role during Operation Ironclad , which captured Madagascar in 1942 . He retired from the navy in 1973 , and became an academic and author . Early life and family . Gueritz was born on 8 September 1919 . He was educated at Cheltenham College , Gloucestershire , entering as an exhibitioner in 1933 . He was the son of Elton Laurence Gueritz , an officer of the Colonial Service and Eleanor Dixon Valentine Gueritz ( née Findlay ) . He had three siblings , an elder brother and two older sisters . His brother , John Elton Fortescue Gueritz ( born 1911 ) , was an officer of the British Indian Army , subsequently working for the British Council in Tehran , and later became Secretary of the St . John Ambulance Association in the United Kingdom . His sister Lucy Valentine Gueritz ( born 1915 ) married an Indian Army officer , Henry Gerard Burton . His other sister , Eleanor Elton Gueritz ( born 1916 ) served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service during the Second World War and married another Indian Army officer , William Richard Feaver . Military career . On leaving school he joined the Royal Navy as a special entry cadet in 1937 . He was appointed to on 13 April 1938 , and promoted to midshipman on 26 April 1938 ( with seniority from 1 May ) . Second World War . Soon after the outbreak of the Second World War , he was a midshipman on the cruiser . The ship was refitting in the Falkland Islands at the start of the Battle of the River Plate but hurriedly rejoined the squadron commanded by Commodore Henry Harwood . The subsequence blockade resulted in the scuttling of the " Admiral Graf Spee " . On D - Day , 6 June 1944 , Gueritz went ashore on Sword Beach at 0800 as the third most senior member of the beachmaster party . His immediate superior , Commander Rowley Nichols was badly wounded , and the army liaison officer Lieutenant - Colonel D V H Board was killed almost immediately . This left Gueritz alone with the task of marshalling all the troops coming ashore , organising the landing craft and maintaining contact with the naval forces offshore . He was wearing a blue - painted helmet and a red scarf , and his sole weapon was a blackthorn walking stick . Gueritz ' s immediate task was to solve the problem of vehicles becoming stuck in the soft sand , and to start getting men through the exits being cleared through the minefields and barbed wire by flail tank s . To add to his problems , a further brigade came ashore at 0930 , only to find that high winds were driving the tide higher than expected , reducing the space available on the beach and pushing the landing craft on to the explosive obstacles left by the Germans . Despite all this by the evening of D - Day 30 , 000 troops , hundreds of vehicles and tons of ammunition and other supplies had been landed and moved through the beach area . Gueritz continued his work for 19 days then , fortunately just after he had put his helmet back on , he was struck in the head by a shell fragment . Initially the seriousness of his wound was not realised , and it was only when he collapsed while he was being treated for a minor hand injury that doctors discovered that the back of his skull had been crushed . Evacuated to the United Kingdom , he was operated on at Southampton General Hospital . John Richardson , the surgeon who saved Gueritz ' s life , later became president of the General Medical Council and was created a life peer . Post Second World War . After the war Gueritz became second - in - command of , and it was due to the damage control procedures that he put in place that the ship was not lost during the Corfu Channel Incident in 1946 . He was promoted to lieutenant commander on 16 April 1949 , and to commander on 31 December 1953 . He served on the staff of General Sir Hugh Stockwell during the Suez Crisis of 1956 . Within the seaman specialism , he was promoted to captain on 30 June 1959 on appointment as Deputy Director of the Royal Naval Staff College . He joined the Naval Staff at the Admiralty in 1961 , attended Imperial Defence College in 1964 and became Captain of the Fleet for the Far East Fleet in 1965 . He went on to be Director of Defence Plans ( Navy ) in 1967 , Director of the Joint Warfare Staff at the Ministry of Defence in 1968 and President of the Royal Naval College , Greenwich in 1968 . His last appointment was as Commandant of the Joint Warfare Establishment in 1970 before he retired on 15 January 1973 . Later life . Gueritz held a number of positions at the Royal United Services Institute . In the 1970s he also participated in an Anglo - German exercise which for Operation Sea Lion , the proposed German invasion of the United Kingdom during the Second World War . He also set questions for the TV quiz programme , " Mastermind " . From 1976 to 1979 , he was Editor of the RUSI Journal and from 1980 to 1981 was Editor - in - Chief . From 1980 to 1981 , he was Director of the Institute . Honours and decorations . On 25 August 1942 , Gueritz was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross " for bravery and enterprise while serving in H . M . Ships , Transports and Royal Fleet Auxiliaries in the successful operations which led to the surrender of the important base of Diego Suarez " . On 29 August 1944 , he was awarded a Bar to his Distinguished Service Cross " for gallantry , skill , determination and undaunted devotion to duty during the initial landings of Allied Forces on the coast of Normandy " . In the 1957 Queen ' s Birthday Honours , he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire " in recognition of distinguished services in the Operations in the Near East , October to December 1956 " . In the 1971 Queen ' s Birthday Honours , he was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath ( CB ) .