The fourteenth and final Blue Plaque commemorating a WWII Submariner and VC holder was placed on the historic Grade 1 listed Maison Dieu, Dover, Kent on the 6th June 2026.

Over 100 guests, which included the Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Kent, Brigadier Trevor Minter OBE, DL; The Lord Warden & Admiral of Cinque Ports, Admiral Sir George Zambellas, GCB, DSC, DL, & Lady Zambellas; Leader of Dover District Council, Councillor Kevin Mills; The Mayor of Dover, Councillor Bekah Dawes; The Patron of the Submariners Association, Admiral Sir James Perowne KCVO, KBE, & Lady Perowne; Rear Admiral Submarines Representative, Commodore Ben Haskins CBE; Dean of Dover, Reverend Dr. Andrew Bawtree ; Mr. Keith Gould & extended family.

Members of the Gould Family, joined veteran and serving submariners including, the President of the Submariners Association, Commodore Jim Le S Perks CBE; the Chairman of the Submariners Association, Mr. Andy Knox, National, Middlesex, East Kent, Medway Towns, South Kent, Essex & Lincoln Branches of the Submariners Association with Standards and serving Submariner Officers and Sailors from Plymouth Naval Base for the ceremony.

The commemoration service was led by the Reverend Dr. Andrew Bawtree, Dean of Dover and the Chairman of the Submariners Association, Warrant Officer Andy Knox welcomed everybody to the ceremony. Councillor Kevin Mills gave a brief on Petty Officer Gould VC as a citizen who was born and educated in Dover, The President of the Submariners Association, Commodore Jim Le S Perks CBE, provided detailed information on Petty Officer Gould VC s naval career & citation for the award of the VC.

This was followed by the unveiling of the plaque by Councillor Kevin Mills and Mr. Keith Gould. During the dedication service the plaque was blessed by the Reverend Andrew Bawtree, Standards were dipped and a 2 minutes silence was observed for the three military personnel that lost their lives in the recent Helicopter incident on Wednesday 3rd June 2026 in Sourton, near Okehampton, Devon.

Thomas William (known as ‘Nat) Gould was born in Dover in Kent on 28th Dec 1914 and was the son of Reuben and Mrs C E Gould. As a Sergeant in the Queen’s Own, Royal West Kent Regiment Reuben Gould was killed in action in France on 22nd Jul 1916. Nat Gould’s mother was later married to a Petty Officer Cheeseman. Educated at St James’s School, Dover, Nat Gould joined the Royal Navy on 29th Sep 1933, and after training, served in the cruisers HMS Emerald and Colombo.

He joined the Submarine Service in 1937 and served in HMS Grampus, Regent, Pandora & Regulus before joining Thrasher. He was rated Acting Petty Officer on 17th August 1940 & was awarded the Victoria Cross while serving in the Mediterranean in Submarine HMS Thrasher in February 1942.

On 16th February 1942 Thrasher was patrolling off Suva Bay, on the north coast of Crete, when she torpedoed and sank an escorted 3,000-ton Axis supply ship. The escorts and covering aircraft attacked with about thirty depth charges and some were reported close. Thrasher survived these attacks and carried on with the patrol. That evening Thrasher surfaced to recharge batteries. On altering course and the Submarine rolled in the swell and loud banging noises were heard outside the pressure hull. On investigation a bomb was found to be lying on the casing forward of the gun mounting.

Lieutenant Roberts, the First Lieutenant and Petty Officer Gould the 2nd Coxswain volunteered to remove the bomb. As it was thought that the bomb might roll off the casing on to the saddle tank & detonate, Gould held the bomb and Roberts put a sack round it & tied it with a length of rope. They then manhandled the bomb forward to the bows and dropped it overboard as the Submarine went full astern to get clear.

Further checks identified a jagged hole in the casing and another bomb was found lying under the casing on the pressure hull. The only way out was through a hinged metal grating about twenty feet away. The two men lowered themselves through the opening and wriggled on their stomachs to where the bomb lay.

If the bomb had exploded the submarine would have been be lost. Thrasher was off an enemy coast & the enemy were aware there was a Submarine in the area. The Commanding Officer of Thrasher, Lt. Hugh Mackenzie, would dive the submarine if enemy forces were sighted and the two men would be drowned.

Nat Gould had to lie on his back with the bomb in his arms while Lieutenant Roberts laid in front of him and pulled him along by the shoulders as they made their way back to the hatch. With only the light of a shaded torch they worked the bomb through the casing and eased it through the grating. The bomb reportedly made a twanging noise when it was moved and it was 40 minutes before they had it clear and it could be wrapped in a sack, carried forward and dropped over the bows.

The Commanding Officer did not make much of the incident in his patrol report and merely commended Roberts and Gould for their “excellent conduct”. The incident was forgotten until several months later, when, as Mackenzie recalled, he was: “shaken by the news that Roberts and Gould had both been awarded the Victoria Cross. A great personal honour to themselves and, as they and I felt, also to their fellow submariners.”

“I never expected to get the VC,” Gould is reported to have said. “When we came down from the casing that night, we were soaking wet.” All the Captain said was: `You’d better get yourselves dried’.”

The VCs were awarded on the recommendation of the C-in-C Mediterranean, Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, but opposed by the Honours and Awards Committee in London, which argued that the act of bravery had not been performed in the presence of the enemy as the Victoria Cross Rules stipulate. The Committee thought that the George Cross would be more appropriate. Cunningham replied that two large enemy bombs in a submarine off an enemy coastline constituted quite enough enemy presence.

On the 9 June 1942, the citation to Petty Officer Thomas William Gould & Lieutenant Peter Roberts, Royal Navy, was published in the London Gazette, and read:

‘On 16th February 1942, in daylight, HM Submarine ‘Thrasher’ attacked and sank a heavily escorted supply ship. She was at once attacked by depth charges and was bombed by aircraft. The presence of two unexploded bombs in the gun casing was discovered when after dark the submarine surfaced and began to roll.

Lieutenant Roberts and Petty Officer Gould volunteered to remove the bombs, – which were of a type unknown to them.

The danger in dealing with the second bomb was very great. To reach it they had to go through the casing which was so low that they had to lie at full length to move it. Through a narrow space, in complete darkness, they pushed and dragged the bomb for a distance of some 20 feet until it could be lowered over the side. Every time the bomb was moved there was a loud twanging noise as of a broken spring which added nothing to their peace of mind. This deed was the more gallant as HMS Thrasher’s presence was known to the enemy: she was close to the enemy coast, and in waters where his patrols were known to be active day and night. There was a very great chance, and they knew it, that the submarine might have to crash-dive while they were in the casing. Had this happened they must have been drowned.’

Thomas Gould was invested with his Victoria Cross by King George VI at Buckingham Palace in March 1943. On 13th January 1943, Gould was made an Honorary Freeman of Dover; and in March, after his Investiture at Buckingham Palace, he went home to St Albans, where he then lived, for a Civic Reception hosted by the Mayor Corporation of St. Albans. Later in the war he was Mentioned in Despatches for the action in which submarine HMS Truculent sank U-308 off the Faroe Islands.

Nat Gould was ‘invalided’ from the Navy in October 1945. He became a business consultant and was for some years Chief Personnel Manager with Great Universal Stores. He kept up his interest in the Navy and the Jewish community, taking part in Jewish Ex-Servicemen’s marches and in July 1946 took part in a march through London to protest against the Government’s policy towards Palestine. He was ‘commissioned’ as a Lieutenant, RNR and commanded the Sea Cadet Corps at Bromley in Kent, where he was then living.

In May 1965, Gould’s name was in the papers again, this time as “a VC on the dole”. He had lost his job as personnel manager because of “a clash of personalities” and remarked that he was finding his VC a liability. “Incredible though it may seem, people in top management seem to shy away from me. I think it might be because they are afraid that a man with such a record could show too much embarrassing initiative. If it is the VC which is frightening people away from me I wish they would forget it. Those days are over”.

For several years Gould was President of the International Submariners Association of Great Britain and was an active member of his local Royal Naval Association, of the Submariners Association and the Victoria Cross and George Cross Association. Tommy ‘Nat’ Gould, who was one of only three Jewish recipients of the Victoria Cross in WWII. He died on 10th Dec 2001 at the age of eighty-seven.

‘Nat’ Gould’s Victoria Cross was sold at Sotheby’s on October 1987 for £44,000 & it is held, with his other medals, by the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women.

Both Gould and Roberts were very brave men.

Whilst it was sunny with periods of intermittent rain during the ceremony, an excellent day was had by all guests. On completion of the ceremony all guests retired to the Maison Dieu for a reception which was sponsored by Dover District Council.

Commemoration pictures were presented to the Keith Gould, the Cheeseman Family and Dover District Council which contained pictures and extracts of Gould VC career.

The Submariners Association would like to thank the Dover District Council for sponsoring the reception following the ceremony and for providing permission for the plaque to be mounted on the Maison Dieu.

Thanks are also extended to Jon Iveson, the Curator of the Dover Museum and Bronze Age Boat Gallery for his assistance in organising the event, all serving submariners and veterans and all eight Standard Bearers who attended.

Author:  Lieutenant Commander Frank (Sandy) Powell –

Blue Plaque Project Manager for and On Behalf of the Submariners Association Committee.