THE second in the Thurrock NubNews series of articles by local historian Sue Yates

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I recently had the good fortune to meet an elderly gentleman who had worked in Tilbury Docks all his life and he told me about an amazing man, Captain Peter de Neumann, who was Dockmaster at Tilbury.

Born Bernard Peter de Neumann on 18th September 1917 in Eva Cottage, Leigh Road, Hadleigh (now London Road) to Muriel and Frederick de Neumann. He was the youngest of four children.

In October 1920 Frederick drowned when his ketch Deerhound was lost in a storm.

Bernard, known as Peter, was only two years old. He lived with his mother until 1926 when she went in to hospital he then went to live with relatives. His mother died in December 1926 and he went in to care.

He attended the training ship Exmouth which prepared orphaned boys for careers at sea. In 1934 he went to sea. He studied whilst at sea and became a Second Officer before World War II. Between 1939 and 1941 he made several hazardous voyages.

He was a merchant navy officer and won the George Medal in World War II and the Lloyds Bravery medal for sitting astride a large bomb to keep it still before removing the bomb from the engine room of the s.s. Tewkesbury and dropping it overboard during an attack by the Luftwaffe on 1st March 1941.

On 21st May the ship was sunk by enemy gunfire and Peter's lifeboat was rescued by s.s. Exhibitor and transferred to the s.s. Cilicia. On arrival at Freetown he volunteered as an officer aboard the s.s. Criton, a Royal Naval prize vessel captured from the Vichy French. This was intercepted by two Vichy French vessels and sunk by gunfire.

The crew were taken to Conakry where the officers were tried and found guilty on a charge of piracy. They were sentenced to imprisonment in Timbuktu. Peter managed somehow to escape and walked 400 miles before being recaptured and returned.

Peter was eventually set free in December 1942 arriving back in England in January 1943 he became known as 'the man from Timbuktu'. On 11th February he received his George medal from King George VI at Buckingham Palace.

After the war Captain de Neumann left the sea and joined the Port of London Authority where he began to institute a study of port control which he eventually saw through to its application and installation at Gravesend in 1960. Subsequently due to ill health he became Dock master at Tilbury. His adventures did not end here.

He received two commendations for bravery.

The first was for helping in the rescue of the tug Sunfish. His second commendation came for rescuing the crew of the tug Kenia which sank in Tilbury Dock on 25th August 1964. He received further commendation when on 10th March 1966 he tried to save the life of a crane driver after his crane fell across the open hold of a ship in Tilbury Dock.

Peter died in an accident in the Dock on 16th September 1972 just short of his 55th birthday. He fell 20 feet from a ladder whilst leaving the m.v. Stearmark. He was taken unconscious to Orsett Hospital where he died without regaining consciousness. His ashes were scattered on the River Thames at Gravesend Reach.

A fitting resting place for a man whose life had been given to the sea.