A fine and distinguished gentleman from the barking eccentric school of life, of which there are far too few members in this clinical and profit driven era.
I did read somewhere that on one mission he clambered over the bodies of the FE and pilot to rescue his stricken Lancaster, not something you heard him talk about very much if at all. And that was on top of being one of the very few individuals to have met Orville Wright, Uri Gagarin and Neil Armstrong and having his private research used by both NASA and the Soviet Space Programme. Quite a tally over an incredibily distinguished career.
I shall be looking out of the window tonight and wouldn't be suprised to see Polaris glinting that little bit brighter.