HEROIC Gerard Roope was quite rightly remembered in last week's Looking Back.

The Weymouth captain of HMS Glow-worm, who fought a heroic but eventually fatal battle against three German war ships, has been remembered locally for many years. Gerard went down with his vessel, trying to get as many men out of the water and to safety as possible.

And we know this because Cedric 'Bill' Rose of Portland got in touch to let us know that a former Portland resident Jack Townsley was a petty officer on the ill-fated Glow-worm, but survived the onslaught from the Germans in the Second World War.

Bill knew Jack as he was working as a cashier at Lloyds bank on Portland.

Bill said: "Jack was on HMS Glow-worm when it sank. He went on to live on Portland and worked at Lloyds bank with me as security there. Before that he had been working at the

"He never talked much about the incident, but he spoke highly of Lt Cdr Roope.

"After the sinking of the ship Jack was taken to hospital in Norway and he was transferred to a prisoner of war camp.

"He was married to Nell Pearce and they lived on Portland. They didn't have any children.

"I know that Jack didn't care much for a first lieutenant of HMS Glow-worm who later approached him to be in a book about Glow-worm. Jack was quite well known on the island in the 70s and early 80s. He would play cricket for the borstal.

"Although he didn't want to talk much about his experience, he was full of so much admiration for his captain Gerard Roope."