Roy Francis

Lieutenant-Commander Roy Wallace Francis (2 July 1922 – 27 January 2015) was a British naval officer who served on and during World War II. He was later the founder of the gauge Wells Harbour Railway and Wells & Walsingham Light Railway, both located in Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, United Kingdom. Francis died aged 92.

Early life Francis was born in Chingford, Essex on 2 July 1922 the son of Colonel Aubrey Francis. Francis developed an interest in railways at an early age. He had an ambition to work on the railway, but his father signed him up for a naval school at the age of fourteen. In 1943, he was transferred to K588 . The Colony Class frigate was launched on 10 October 1943, sponsored by Mrs. William Eastham. The ship transferred to the United Kingdom under Lend-Lease on 25 July 1944 and was one of four that sank off Malin Head, County Donegal, Ireland. In November 1945, Francis was given command of the Bar class Boom Defence Vessel Z92 . In 1949, HMS Barndale was involved in trials assessing the effect of nuclear blasts on ships. was the subject of these experiments. He was then engaged in mine clearance operations off Sierra Leone until 1951. He was also involved in the search for a missing American nuclear trigger off Orford Ness, Suffolk in 1955. The trigger was recovered. He later sold the WHR to finance the construction of the Wells and Walsingham Light Railway, which runs between Wells-next-the-Sea and Walsingham, Norfolk and opened in 1982.