His post-war career saw him command a variety of vessels including the aircraft carrier HMCS Bonaventure as well as several staff roles.

[1] He was sent to Ramsgate and placed in command of the 1934 Camper and Nicholsons motor yacht Llanthony, which belonged to the former Member of Parliament Colonel Lionel Beaumont Thomas MC.

Timbrell was assigned a crew consisting of a Royal Navy petty officer, two London Transport (LT) bus mechanics and six woodsmen from Newfoundland.

Before arriving at the beaches they met a broken down Thames pleasure steamer, crowded with evacuated troops which they immediately towed back to Ramsgate.

The sergeant went back into Dunkirk and commandeered a Bren Gun Carrier, this was driven into the sea until its engine stopped, and then used as an anchor for Llanthony.

"[2] The Guards sergeant, and a few of his men, elected to stay with Llanthony, and had gathered together what they could find by way of weaponry, including Bren guns and anti-tank weapons.

[2] On his final trip to Dunkirk, by which time German troops were already entering the town, he was met on the beach by a drunken British soldier who insisted on paying for his passage home with a case of looted brandy, and who then spent the journey asleep in the wheelhouse of the yacht.

Having looked at the dishevelled bunch in front of him, still with their weapons (and brandy), the bus conductor asked, "Are you just back from Dunkirk, sir?"

[1] As part of the small corps of professional Canadian naval officers, Timbrell had an important role to play as the RCN expanded from a pre-war strength of just 3,700 to 96,000.

[1] Following his retirement Timbrell became president of the Dominion Marine Association an organisation related to shipping on the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence Seaway.

Llanthony had been restored for the occasion, but in the event bad weather meant he could not complete the crossing on his original vessel, so he travelled on the British destroyer, HMS Somerset.

[1] He died on April 11, 2006, and is survived by his widow (Patricia Timbrell née Jones, after nearly 60 years of marriage), their daughter and their grandson, who is following the family naval tradition, by becoming an officer in the Canadian Forces Maritime Command.