A SECOND World War hero who played a vital role in the daring Dunkirk evacuation has been honoured with a special plaque.
The lasting tribute has been unveiled at the Leigh Heritage Centre to commemorate Jewish Royal Naval Officer Sub Lieutenant Martin Solomon.
He gallantly commanded the Leigh boats during the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940.
The plaque was jointly sponsored by AJEX (the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women), the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation (UK Branch), the Endeavour Trust, Leigh Heritage Centre and Leigh Council.
Martin Sugarman, AJEX Archivist and author, said: “Martin Solomon was an extremely brave and highly decorated Royal Naval hero in the Second World War and the UK Jewish community are very proud of him. Generally, his story is not well known so we thought a plaque in the UK at the site of the start of one his great exploits was needed to show how the Jewish community contributed to the defeat of the Nazis and for freedom. This assists in the fight against anti-Semitism and racism to show that the Jews did their bit and more – as many lies are repeated about allegations of Jews shirking duty.
“It is a great honour for us to be able to do this for future generations in the Southend area and thank the community in Leigh for helping us obtain permission.”
According to the Endeavour Trust records, Solomon enrolled in the Royal Naval Volunteer Supplementary Reserve in 1938. After just four days of training at HMS King Alfred, Solomon was one of four officers to graduate, those few being the only ones that had a complete uniform.
All four joined Thames Naval Control based at HMS Leigh – which was reportedly Southend pier.
Solomon was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for gallantry for his part in the Dunkirk evacuations. Also known as Operation Dynamo, the evacuations took place between May 26 and June 4, 1940 and involved the evacuation of more than 338,000 allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk.
After the war, Solomon was an exporter and, separately, a director for Pye Marine Radio. In 1953, he was re-engaged by the Navy for work in Korea. In 1956, Solomon sadly died in what were apparently “mysterious circumstances” in Madrid. His body was flown back to London for burial.
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