Captain Kenneth Alfred Hugo Cummins (6 March 1900 – 10 December 2006) was, at age 106, one of the last surviving British veterans of the First World War.
Against standing orders, the ship had been torpedoed and sunk by U-86 off the coast of Ireland, after which the submarine rammed and shelled the survivors in lifeboats, with only 24 of the 258 on board surviving.
In the Second World War, he served as chief officer aboard RMS Viceroy of India, a 20,000-ton luxury liner requisitioned as a troopship, and used to land 2,000 men in North Africa during Operation Torch.
He then served as chief officer on the commandeered French liner SS Ile de France, which was converted into a troopship; its high speed enabled it to repeatedly ferry American troops across the Atlantic outside the convoy system.
Cummins returned to P&O after the Second World War, taking command of the liner RMS Maloja, which took Italian troops home to Italy, and soldiers of the King's African Rifles back to Africa.