Later in the war he served on destroyers escorting convoys across the North Atlantic, becoming second in command and then serving on the staff of escort group commanders.
After fuelling and loading several barrels of fresh water they set off across the English Channel for Dunkirk. Before arriving at the beaches they met a broken down Thames pleasure steamer, crowded with evacuated troops which they immediately towed back to Ramsgate. Setting out once more for the evacuation beaches, this time they reached Dunkirk and started on the evacuation. Then, as Timbrell told CBC in 1980, "On the third or fourth trip we got bombed. We were hit on the fo'csle. I lost about five of the crew and both my anchors snapped. The fuel pipes were severed so both engines died. We drifted up on the beach."[2]
He had succeeded in digging out the propellers and rudder from the sand when a Guardssergeant appeared with eight guardsmen. The sergeant went back into Dunkirk and commandeered a Bren Gun Carrier, this was driven into the sea until its engine stopped, and then used as an anchor for Llanthony. The two LT mechanics then managed to repair and restart the engines and she could be winched back into the water. A metal plate was fixed over the bomb damage and she returned to Kent with another load of soldiers.[2]
Back in Ramsgate, in Timbrell's own words, "By then I was an old hand, so I was given four trawlers to add to my fleet. They had come down from Scotland and their old skippers had 20 years' experience – more sea time than I will ever get in my life."[2]
The Guards sergeant, and a few of his men, elected to stay with Llanthony, and had gathered together what they could find by way of weaponry, including Bren guns and anti-tank weapons. On the next trip, one of the trawlers hit a mine and was blown to pieces, with no survivors. However the replacement crew of Llanthony were able to drive off air attacks with the weaponry they had gathered, and gave a marauding German E-boat something of a surprise when it attempted to attack them, only to be driven off.[2]
On his final trip to Dunkirk, by which time German troops were already entering the town, he was met on the beach by a drunken British soldier who insisted on paying for his passage home with a case of looted brandy, and who then spent the journey asleep in the wheelhouse of the yacht. Timbrell then returned to Portsmouth in the yacht, by now a shadow of its former elegant self. The funnels riddled with bullet holes, the boats smashed and hull dirty and stained. Disembarking at Portsmouth dockyard, he stopped a civilian bus just outside the gates. Having looked at the dishevelled bunch in front of him, still with their weapons (and brandy), the bus conductor asked, "Are you just back from Dunkirk, sir?" The civilian passengers were still on board as the bus took the military personnel to Whale Island.[1]
Llanthony itself had brought back 280 men, and with the trawlers under his command the total for which Timbrell was responsible was 900 evacuated. Timbrell's DSC was gazetted on 16 August 1940[3] and the investiture was made by King George VI himself, on September 3, 1940.
Remaining war service
Following his Dunkirk experiences he served on HMCS Margaree which was sunk in heavy weather following a collision with a freighter she was escorting. Timbrell survived after spending several hours in a life raft with 20 others in the rough seas of the North Atlantic.[1]
As part of the small corps of professional Canadian naval officers, Timbrell had an important role to play as the RCN expanded from a pre-war strength of just 3,700 to 96,000.
He made a final return to Dunkirk in May 2000, as part of the 60th anniversary celebrations. Llanthony had been restored for the occasion, but in the event bad weather meant he could not complete the crossing on his original vessel, so he travelled on the British destroyer, HMS Somerset.[1]
He died on April 11, 2006, and is survived by his widow (Patricia Timbrell née Jones, after nearly 60 years of marriage), their daughter and their grandson, who is following the family naval tradition, by becoming an officer in the Canadian Forces Maritime Command.[1]
Awards and decorations
Timbrell's personal awards and decorations include the following:
^Distinguished Service Cross: London Gazette of 16 August 1940 (no Canada Gazette). "For good service in the withdrawal of the Allied Armies from the beaches at Dunkirk." He was appointed in command of a commandeered yacht (HMS Llanthony) and brought back over 600 soldiers in six crossings at Dunkirk. The first four trips were unremarkable with 120+ troops being taken back to England each trip. On the fifth trip, a German bomb hit the forecastle killing five crews and severed the fuel line. The crew and army troops created a jetty out of trucks until the tide could lift the ship back into the water. The fuel line was repaired and the yacht returned to England. On the sixth trip, this young officer has four trawlers under his command
as well. He had armed the yacht while fixing the fuel line with spare guns from the vehicles left behind and was able to drive off two E-Boats.
^RCN / HMCS Ottawa – Awarded as per Canada Gazette of 20 January 1945 and London Gazette of 5 December 1944. "For services in destroying an enemy submarine on 18th-19th August, 1944." HMCS Ottawa (II) (River Class Destroyer – H31), HMCS Kootenay, and HMCS Chaudiere sank U-621 in the Bay of Biscay on 18 August 1944. They also sank a second U-Boat, U-984 on 20 August 1944 as well. These actions are described in Chapter 49 of "The Canadian Naval Chronicle 1939 – 1945".
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