Audrey Roche, who died on January 13 2009 aged 90, is thought to have
been the only woman decorated for bravery at sea during the Second
World War; as a Wren whose ship had been torpedoed, she saved the life
of a drowning seaman by giving him her lifebelt, and she was mentioned
in despatches. As Third Officer Audrey Coningham, she was one of 1,135
passengers in the 15,000-ton submarine depot ship Medway, which,
shortly after 8am on June 30 1942, was torpedoed by Kapitanleutnant
Heinz-Joachim Neumann's U-372 while being escorted by a cruiser and
several destroyers from Alexandria to Haifa.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/4528417/Audrey-Roche.html

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