Royal Navy Second World War veteran from Hampshire who specialised in bomb disposal dies aged 100

Boyd Salmon, who joined up as a rating at the age of 17, went on to be commissioned as an officer in 1944 and was part of the Royal Navy’s Enemy Mining Section which was responsible for clearing harbours and ports of unexploded ordnance and booby traps left by retreating German forces. The veteran, from Lymington, Hampshire, died just before Christmas.

A Royal Navy spokesman said: “We have lost one of the last links with brave men who sought to make post-war Europe safe with the passing of Boyd Salmon at the age of 100. Mr Salmon was one of the last surviving members of specialist Royal Navy teams of bomb disposal/mine warfare experts neutralising the vast quantities of unexploded ordnance which littered former battlegrounds.”

Russian warships sailing through English Channel shadowed by Royal Navy

Sign up for free Portsmouth News newsletters

The spokesman said that Mr Salmon, who had the rank of sub lieutenant, was involved in clearing ordnance from Sword Beach at Normandy as well as the Dutch island of Walcheren. But his naval career came to an end when a device exploded about 20 metres away from him injuring him with a piece of shrapnel to his stomach. During his recuperation, Mr Salmon met his wife, Jacqueline, who was one of his physiotherapists.

He went on to become a chartered engineer and he settled in the New Forest town of Lymington where he enjoyed playing golf and painting. The navy spokesman said Mr Salmon celebrated his 100th birthday with a 40-minute helicopter flight over the Solent.

He also visiting the home of Royal Navy diving/bomb disposal on Horsea Island, Portsmouth, with his modern-day counterparts organising a replacement set of his missing wartime medals. The spokesman added: “He died shortly before Christmas and his remarkable life was celebrated by fellow residents of the Lymington care home where he spent his final years.”