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Peter  LUARD

 Peter Frank Luard nacque a Londra il 20 marzo del 1921 e fu educato nell'Eastbourne prima di laurearsi al Collegio Nautico Thames di Worcester.

 Peter fece parte della marina mercantile dal 1939 al 1946 raggiungendo il grado di ufficiale e durante la guerra si trovò a bordo di due diverse navi mercantile che furono attaccate e affondate ed entrambe le volte riuscì a salvarsi su una scialuppa di salvataggio assieme ad un pungo di sopravvissuti.

 Salvato dal secondo naufragio quando si trovava a bordo della Opawa, fu portato a New York.  Nominato membro dell'Impero Britannico per lo straordinario eroismo con cui collaborò a portare in salvo la scialuppa.

 Gli infortuni non lo dissuasero dalla vita di mare e si stabilì negli Stati Uniti dove fece l'Ispettore di Bordo fino al momento del suo pensionamento avvenuto nel 1988.

 Dopo un breve soggiorno ai Caraibi si stabilì ad Antigonish in Nuova Scozia e iniziò a dedicarsi al Bridge diventando Life Master nel 2007.

 Concluse la sua incredibile vita spegnendosi  serenamente ad Antigonish l'11 marzo del 2013.

  Peter was born in London, England, March 20, 1921. He lived and received his early schooling in Eastbourne before studying and graduating from the Thames Nautical College HMS Worcester in 1939.

He served as a merchant seaman from 1939 to 1946 attaining the rank of chief mate. During the war, Peter was aboard two freighters that were sunk by U Boats in the Atlantic and both times managed to make it to a lifeboat with only a handful of survivors. On one of these occasions, the U-Boat surfaced and a German sailor manned the deck gun ready to fire on the lifeboat but the Captain waved him off and the U-Boat slipped quietly under the surface leaving the survivors to their fate and subsequent rescue.

On February 6, 1942, his ship, the ”Opawa” was torpedoed 400 miles southeast of Nova Scotia. After six days at sea, he was rescued and taken to New York.

He was awarded the MBE (Member of the British Empire) by King George VII for his outstanding performance in the lifeboat. Yet he returned to the sea and immigrated to the United States in 1946 where he worked as a marine surveyor until his retirement in 1988.

He then sailed through the Caribbean and on to Canada where he settled in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. He continued to enjoy sailing, swimming and anything to do with the sea. Playing bridge became his passion and in 2007 Peter became
a Life Master.

Peter Frank Luard passed peacefully in Antigonish on March 11, 2013.