In May 1941, a refrigerated cargo ship, SS Elstree Grange, had just discharged a consignment of beef from Buenos Aires at Liverpool’s Canada Dock when it was struck by a German parachute mine which hit and destroyed the ship’s ammunition store causing a large fire and continuing explosions. Present at the scene, 21-year-old Temporary Sub Lieutenant Mark Vincent Ebel, an Articled Clerk in civilian life, helped to rescue two wounded men from the burning ship. That November, King George VI awarded Ebel a George Medal (GM) for “bravery and resource in rescuing two men from a burning ship”.

Mark Ebel was First Lieutenant of HMS VANDAL when it was lost with all hands.