Ernest V Muir

Died: 19 Apr 1945
Awards: Distinguished Service Medal
Sergeant Ernest Victor Muir was a Royal Marines veteran of the First World War. Between the wars he worked as a Messenger at Barclays branch at 451 Oxford Street, London. He was recalled to the Forces on the outbreak of World War Two, and was awarded the DSM in 1942 for exemplary conduct in action against enemy aircraft when a British convoy in the Channel was attacked by half a dozen enemy planes. During the action, two guns in Muir’s ship jammed and, regardless of bombs and bullets, he visited each and set it firing again. In 1943, he was stationed at the DEMS (Defensively Equipped Merchant Ship) base at Fleetwood, Lancashire, where he was in charge of the Fishermen’s Gunnery School. He taught hundreds of fisherman of many nationalities how to protect themselves from U boat attacks, and how to use small arms. He died of natural causes shortly before the end of the War.