Henry Wheeler

alt=8.45 - 'DESERT ISLAND DISCS' Signalman H. C. E. Wheeler, Naval Party 1745, speaking by radio from an island off the coast of Europe, asks Roy Plomley to play him some of his favourite records

Henry Charles Edward Wheeler (29 July 1925 – 22 November 2004) was an English naval signalman during World War II.

Wheeler was born on 29 July 1925 in Bath, England, to Rose (née Snook) and Henry Arthur Wheeler, and was the eldest in a family of six. He was from Vernhan Grove in Bath, where his civilian role was as a tailor's assistant.

He joined the Royal Navy in 1943, and undertook his naval training at HMS Impregnable, a shore establishment at Plymouth. at the age of 20. His appearance came one week after that of film star Deborah Kerr. calling it "a song I find myself singing when I think about my girl [Dine]".

It was later revealed that the island on which Wheeler was serving was Norderney — one of the East Frisian Islands off the north coast of Germany, where the British Forces Network provided the live outside broadcast, via Hamburg.

He died on 22 November 2004 in Sodbury, South Gloucestershire. He was cremated at Westerleigh Crematorium.