Harry DeWolf

Vice Admiral Henry George DeWolf CBE, DSO, DSC, CD (26 June 1903 – 18 December 2000) was a Canadian naval officer who was famous as the first commander of HMCS Haida during the Second World War.

Harry George DeWolf was born on 26 June 1903 into a shipping broker family in Bedford, Nova Scotia.

In May 1931, he married Gwendolen Gilbert of Somerset, Bermuda, whom he had met while serving aboard HMCS Patriot, which had spent a winter training there several years earlier.

St. Laurent under DeWolf reportedly fired the RCN's first shots of the war as they helped rescue British and French troops escaping from continental Europe during Operation Dynamo after the Fall of France in late May and early June 1940.

St. Laurent returned to convoy duty in the North Atlantic, and the following month, in July 1940, DeWolf's ship rescued 859 German and Italian prisoners of war, survivors of Arandora, which had been torpedoed by a U-boat, U-47.

Most of his more famous battles took place at night in the English Channel, when DeWolf secured his reputation as a fearless and skilful tactician and became known to his crew as "Hard-Over-Harry" for bold manoeuvres off the coast of France.

DeWolf earned the Distinguished Service Order for rescuing survivors of HMCS Athabaskan within range of enemy coastal guns on the French coast.

[3] DeWolf left Haida and was recalled to Ottawa, where he was promoted to captain in September 1944, becoming Assistant Chief of Naval Staff.

[2] DeWolf was promoted to vice admiral in January 1956 and served as Chief of the Naval Staff before retiring from the RCN on 31 July 1960.

HMCS Haida during Second World War . DeWolf was in command of the destroyer from August 1943 to September 1944.
Construction for a Harry DeWolf -class offshore patrol vessel . In 2014, it was announced the class of ships, along with its lead ship, would be named after DeWolf in his honour.