William Bailey (11 May 1918 – 11 March 1985) was a Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve officer and businessman, who was twice awarded the George Medal for his work as a clearance diver during the Second World War.

Early life

Bailey was born to British parents in

Santos-o-Velho Santos-o-Velho () is a former ''freguesia'' (civil parish) of Lisbon, Portugal, with an area of 0.51 km2 and 4,013 inhabitants (2001). It has a population density of 7899.6 inhabitants/km2. At the administrative reorganization of Lis ...

, Portugal, where his father worked as a mechanical engineer.WILLIAM BAILEY CBE, DSC, GM and Bar 1918–1985 – A Wartime Tribute
Retrieved 8 February 2016. p.40-1. He was educated at

Oporto British School Oporto British School (OBS) is a British school established in 1894 in Foz do Douro, Porto, Portugal. It is the oldest British school in mainland Europe. It is a private, day school for both boys and girls, aged 3 to 18, with 558 pupils on rol ...

and

Highgate School Highgate School, formally Sir Roger Cholmeley's School at Highgate, is an English co-educational, fee-charging, independent day school, founded in 1565 in Highgate, London, England. It educates over 1,400 pupils in three sections – Highgate ...

. He qualified as an electrical engineer from Faraday House Electrical Engineering College in 1940, and joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve immediately afterwards.

Military service

He received a commission as a temporary electrical

sub-lieutenant Sub-lieutenant is usually a junior officer rank, used in armies, navies and air forces. In most armies, sub-lieutenant is the lowest officer rank. However, in Brazil, it is the highest non-commissioned rank, and in Spain, it is the second high ...

, and after training took command of an armed mine trawler, HMS ''Prospects Ahead''.'Bailey, William' i
Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) Officers 1939–1945
at unithistories.com. Retrieved 8 February 2016 Bailey subsequently undertook mine sweeping patrols in the North Sea. In September 1941 he was trained as a helmeted diver and deployed to Gibraltar as Senior Diving Officer. Based on , he had responsibility for defusing enemy underwater mines attached to Allied ships. On 29 December 1942 he was awarded the George Medal for "gallantry and undaunted devotion to duty" while defusing shipping mines in the western Mediterranean. In early 1944 Bailey was given command of Naval Party 1574. The team was tasked with the

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

objective of clearing the harbour basin at Ouistreham of mines, and to ensure operation of the lock gates that gave access to the Canal de Caen à la Mer. The mission was successfully executed, and on 13 March 1945 Bailey was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in connection to his service during

Operation Overlord Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allies of World War II, Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Front (World War II), Western Europe during World War II. The operat ...

. He continued to work as a mine disposal expert, and was awarded a

Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

to his George Medal on 15 May 1945 for mine recovery work in France and the Low Countries between D-Day and the end of the war. He was promoted to lieutenant commander in March 1945. In 1947 he was discharged from further service in the Royal Navy; having survived several underwater explosions he was suffering from a duodenal ulcer and nerve deafness.

Business career

In 1949 Bailey returned to Portugal as Assistant Representative for the Metropolitan Vickers Export Company. That year he was called up for military service in Portugal, but exempted due to his wartime injuries. He later became managing director of the Caima Pulp Company, and was twice chairman of the

British Chambers of Commerce British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

. He became a key figure in the British community in Lisbon and was appointed an

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

in the

1960 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1960 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. They were announced in supplements to the '' Lo ...

. On 12 June 1982 he was advanced to Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to British commercial interests in Portugal.

Personal life

Bailey married Joan Mary Gorddard in London in November 1944. He died in Portugal at the age of 66. His obituary in '' The Times'' was written by his close friend, Jock Colville.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bailey, William 1918 births 1985 deaths Bomb disposal personnel British electrical engineers Commanders of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Highgate School Military personnel from Lisbon Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom) Portuguese people of British descent Recipients of the George Medal Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II