World War II
He was recommissioned as a Rear Admiral in 1939 and served in World War II as a Naval Attaché at The Hague in the Netherlands in 1940 during the German invasion. But Dickens's role did not end with the surrender on 14 May. He evacuated to Britain by destroyer, where he was assigned as Principal Liaison Officer, Allied Navies. During this period, his efforts (and those of the Dutch naval attaché in London, Lieutenant Commander A. de Booy) were essential in forging a good working relationship between the Royal Dutch and British Navies. He served as Flag Officer in Tunisia from 1943 to 1944 and as Flag Officer in the Netherlands from September 1944 to 1945, when he retired. In 1945 he was made a Commander in the Legion of Merit (United States) and a Chevalier in the Légion d'honneur (France).
Sir Gerald Dickens died of a heart attack in London aged 83 in 1962 and was buried at sea from HMS Kirkliston off Chatham. He was the father of Captain Peter Dickens RN, the grandfather of actor Gerald Charles Dickens and great-grandfather of actor Harry Lloyd.
The State of Illinois designated 22 November 2003 as 'Gerald Charles Dickens Day'.
Read more about this topic: Gerald Charles Dickens
Famous quotes containing the words war ii, world war, world and/or war:
“Today we know that World War II began not in 1939 or 1941 but in the 1920’s and 1930’s when those who should have known better persuaded themselves that they were not their brother’s keeper.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)
“I date the end of the old republic and the birth of the empire to the invention, in the late thirties, of air conditioning. Before air conditioning, Washington was deserted from mid-June to September.... But after air conditioning and the Second World War arrived, more or less at the same time, Congress sits and sits while the presidents—or at least their staffs—never stop making mischief.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)
“I’ve never forgotten for long at a time that living is struggle. I know that every good and excellent thing in the world stands moment by moment on the razor-edge of danger and must be fought for—whether it’s a field, or a home, or a country.”
—Thornton Wilder (1897–1975)
“Catholics are necessarily at war with this age. That we are not more conscious of the fact, that we so often endeavour to make an impossible peace with it—that is the tragedy. You cannot serve God and Mammon.”
—Eric Gill (1882–1940)