Harry DeWolf

Vice Admiral Henry George DeWolf was a Canadian naval officer who was famous as the first commander of the destroyer HMCS Haida during the Second World War. He helped destroy 14 German ships or submarines in the period before, during and immediately after the Invasion of Normandy. He was the most decorated naval officer in the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) in that war. During that time, he and the crew of Haida were remembered for trying to save the crew of Haida's sister ship, HMCS Athabaskan, in early May 1944 after the vessel sank. After the Second World War, he commanded Canada's first aircraft carriers, HMCS Warrior and HMCS Magnificent. In the wake of 42 years of service, he retired in the early 1960s from the RCN. He aided in the plan to conserve Haida and was present in Toronto when the ship was handed over officially to civilians to become a memorial/museum ship in the 1960s.