AS we approach the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings, it's timely to remember the much-decorated Worcestershire naval hero who played key roles in the 1944 Normandy invasion and also in the miracle that was Dunkirk.

He was Admiral Sir William Tennant (1890-1963) whose home base throughout life was The Eades in Monsell Road, Upton-upon-Severn. His was a remarkable and extremely distinguished Royal Navy career spanning four decades.

For his significant part in Allied preparations for the D-Day landings, he received both British and American honours and decorations.

At just 15, William (Bill) Tennant was sent to the Junior Naval College on the Isle of Wight and later to the training ship HMS Britannia moored in the River Dart.

As a young naval officer during the First World War, he saw action in naval operations at Heligoland and Dogger Bank, in the evacuation of troops from Gallipoli and at the Battle of Jutland, and survived the sinking of his ship by German U-boat torpedoes in the North Sea.

In the 1920s, he was promoted to lieutenant-commander for duties on the Royal Yacht and then aboard the cruisers HMS Renown and HMS Repulse which took the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) on Royal tours to India, Ceylon and Japan, and to Africa and South America.

In recognition of those duties he was awarded a Royal Household honour - the MVO (Member of the Victorian Order) - and was promoted to commander.

But his pivotal roles in naval history came during the Second World War. In May, 1940, he was appointed Beachmaster for the Dunkirk Evacuation and, on arrival on the French coast, immediately signalled to Dover "for every available craft."

At the head of a naval beach and pier party of 12 officers and 160 men from the destroyer HMS Wolfhound, Captain Tennant spearheaded the operation which resulted in the "miracle" rescue of 378,829 servicemen - 120,000 of them French - from the Dunkirk beaches by an armada of boats, large and small.

Vice Admiral Ramsey was to declare: "Without Tennant and his men, the troops would have been lost like sheep."

Vice Admiral Sir Kenneth Buckley recalled: "Bill Tennant's tall athletic figure in blue strode fearlessly over the beaches giving orders to largely demoralised 'brown jobs' and being obeyed."

For his actions at Dunkirk, Captain Tennant was awarded the CB (Companion of the Bath) and France's Legion of Honour and Croix de Guerre with Palms. His role in the miracle of Dunkirk was highlighted this year in the BBC's three-part TV dramatisation of the the Dunkirk evacuation.

During 1941 and in command of HMS Repulse, Captain Tennant took part with the Eastern Fleet in the action to trap the German battleship Bismarck.

Then in the summer of 1944, Vice Admiral Tennant was given command of an equally mammoth operation for the D-Day Landings. He was appointed to take charge of the whole naval side of assembly and towage across the Channel of all components for two artificial Mulberry harbours and their setting up off the Normandy coast.

This massive operation involved one million tons of reinforced concrete and 7,000 tons of steel and meant commandeering 70 old merchant ships, four obsolete warships and 160 tugs.

Vice Admiral Tennant was in charge too, of the laying of the cross-Channel Pluto pipeline supplying vital petrol fuel for the same Normandy invasion.

For his part in the success of the D-Day landings, he was awarded the CBE by King George VI and the US Legion of Merit.

Then, in 1945 Vice Admiral Tennant was awarded a knighthood for "distinguished war service," and from 1946 until 1949, was Commander-in-Chief of the America and West Indies Station, with its HQ in Bermuda.

From there, he once wrote to Berrow's Worcester Journal, the world's oldest surviving newspaper: "I've enjoyed reading Berrow's all my life and I get it here at the Station."

He was promoted to Admiral in 1948, but retired the following year at the age of 59.

From 1950, until his death 13 years later, he was Lord Lieutenant of Worcestershire, accompanying the Queen on Royal visits to the city and county as Her Majesty's representative in the shire, and also attending a whole array of civic events, ceremonies and meetings around the county.

In 1952, Sir William was elected an alderman of Worcestershire County Council, serving for several years on some of its main committees. He was president of the Worcestershire CPRE and of the Worcester Sea Cadet Corps, and was founder president of the Worcestershire County Cricket Supporters Association.

The Freedom of Worcester was bestowed on him in 1958, but he died in Worcester Royal Infirmary five years later, aged 73. Lady Tenant survived him by 12 years.