Samuel McConnell

Able Seaman Samuel McConnell served aboard the cruiser HMS Belfast — the ship that would later become a museum on the Thames. He was aboard during the Battle of North Cape when the Scharnhorst was sunk, and during the D-Day bombardment of Gold and Juno beaches. Born in the Shankill Road area of Belfast, he had worked in the Harland and Wolff shipyard before volunteering for the Navy. He often joked that he helped build the very ships he later sailed in. He returned to the shipyard after the war and worked there until retirement.