Colonel Vassal Charles Steer-Webster

Colonel Vassal Charles Steer-Webster

Although not from Littleover, Colonel Vassal Charles Steer-Webster OBE lived there for a time. Born in York on 1st July 1898, he married a Derbyshire woman, Vida Winifred Selvey whose parents lived in Belper, where she was born, then Derby, and Stenson Road, Littleover. His father was a newspaper reporter/editor.

During World War I he served as a private in the 13th Battalion, London Regiment, but was wounded in action and declared 'no longer fit physically for war service' in April 1916.

He was a renowned designer who came to the aid of Winston Churchill with the work on designing the floating harbours that assisted in Britain's greatest moment, with the triumph of D-Day landings. The harbours concept and creation were known as Mulberry Harbours. They were labelled poetically by Albert Speer, the German's minister of armaments as 'an idea of simple genius'. He oversaw the design and installation of Mulberry Harbour B, at Arromanches which supplied British and Canadian troops. Its six miles of steel roadways that floated on concrete pontoons were used to land more than 2.5 million troops, 500,000 vehicles and four million tons of supplies in the 10 months after D-Day.

Colonel Steer-Webster lived in Blagreaves Hall, Blagreaves Lane, Littleover at the start of World War II. His residence there was recorded in the 1939 Register.

The award of Order of the British Empire was announced in London Gazette on the 19th October 1944. At the time of his award he was serving as a Temporary Lieutenant Colonel in the Corps of Royal Engineers.

Colonel Steer-Webster, who was granted the Freedom of the City of London for his achievements, died in the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary on the 24th February 1970, aged 73.