Captain John Thomas, CBE
Monuments & Memorials in Ottawa picture - The only member of the Merchant Marine to receive the Order of the British Empire, he served in WWI, and again in WWII, where he commanded the Canadian Pacific liner (troopship) Empress of Scotland. Because of his superior tactics, the ship survived a Luftwaffe attack off Ireland in 1940, at the spot where a sister ship had been lost earlier under similar circumstances.