Patrick Dalzel-Job

Patrick Dalzel-Job (1 June 1913 – 14 October 2003), was a distinguished British Naval Intelligence Officer and Commando of World War II. He was also an accomplished linguist, author, mariner, navigator, parachutist, diver and skier.

Born in London, Dalzel-Job was the only son of Captain Ernest Dalzel-Job, who was killed in the Battle of the Somme in 1916. After his father's death Dalzel-Job and his mother lived in various locations, including Switzerland, and he learnt to ski and sail. They returned to the UK in 1931 where he built his own schooner, the Mary Fortune, which he and his mother spent the next two years sailing around the British coast.

In 1937, they sailed to Norway and spent the next two years exploring the coast. During this time Dalzel-Job became fluent in Norwegian. He and his mother were accompanied by a Norwegian schoolgirl named Bjørg Bangsund from the city of Tromsø.

At the outbreak of the war on 8 December 1939, he was commissioned into the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. He served as Navigating Officer on a Fleet Tug operating from Scapa Flow between January and March 1940. From April until June, he served with the Anglo/Polish/French Expeditionary Force to Norway during which time he disobeyed a direct order to cease civilian evacuation from Narvik. His action saved some 5000 Norwegians for which King Haakon of Norway awarded him the Ridderkors (Knight's Cross) of St. Olav in 1943. This award saved him from being court-martialled.