Sub-Lieutenant Boyd Salmon, who has died aged 100, was one of the last mine clearance divers who helped to make Europe safe at the end of the Second World War. In early 1945, the 21-year-old Sub-Lieutenant Salmon of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) deployed to Walcheren with a bomb disposal team of six divers: the island of Walcheren, guarding the entrance to Antwerp, had been heavily bombarded by the Navy and the RAF. Boyd Salmon was born on March 24 1924 at Chingford, and left school with no real education or trade. Nevertheless, when he volunteered for the Navy, his talent was recognised and after service at sea as a rating on convoy duties, he was sent to HMS King Alfred at Hove, where officers for the RNVR were trained. When his fiancée complained that he would always be away at sea, he responded to a notice asking for volunteers for what appeared to be shore-based “RMS” work. Boyd Salmon, naval diver who did vital work helping the Dutch to clear undersea mines in 1945
