More than 80 Royal Naval Reservists, including among their numbers many yachtsmen, are helping the Army fire-fighters while the firemen’s strike continues, said Captain Robert Avis at the London Boat Show.

Avis revealed the RNR’s latest role as he launched an appeal for old salts to come forward to help build a definitive history of the organisation in this its centenary year.

He estimates there are over 40,000 retired RNR men in the UK all of who will have stories, photographs and mementoes which he wants to include in a mammoth book.

The RNR started life in 1903 as the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in which organisation Yachting Monthly wartime editor, Maurice Griffiths, served with distinction deactivating German parachute mines in the Thames Estuary and helping prepare ships for the ad hoc harbour created for the Normandy landings. The RNVR formed four fifths of the Royal Navy by the end of World War II.

The RNVR, which was made up entirely of yachtsmen, ceased in 1958 and became the RNR of which around 75 per cent are yachtsmen still. Anyone with information should contact Avis on Tel: 0208 660 6643