James Campbell Clouston (31 August 1900 – 3 June 1940) was a Canadian officer in the British Royal Navy, who acted as pier-master during the Dunkirk evacuation.

[6] He then served as Gunnery Officer in the light cruisers Capetown on the America and West Indies Station, and Delhi at Portsmouth, being promoted to lieutenant commander on 18 June 1930.

[10] Lieutenant John Douglas Clouston (1909–1942) served in the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve aboard Loosestrife in the North Atlantic, and was killed in action.

[11] In May 1940 while Isis was in dock for repairs, Clouston was attached to the Naval Shore Party of eight officers and 160 men under the command of Captain William Tennant sent to the port of Dunkirk to help organise the evacuation.

Clouston won the eastern mole, a narrow wooden walkway mounted on a concrete breakwater, not designed to be used by ships, but the only part of the port that had not been heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe.

When panicked soldiers began attempting to leave the pier, Clouston, a junior officer alongside him, promptly restored order by waving a revolver in the air, stating, "We have come to take you back to the UK.

On the afternoon of 2 June, he and a party of 30 men left Dover on two Royal Air Force rescue motorboats for the final night of the evacuation.

A French liaison officer reported an empty lifeboat floating a mile away and Sub-Lieutenant Solomon asked permission to swim over and try to bring it back.