A stained-glass window to commemorate a civilian hero who helped recover the Enigma code books from stricken U-boat U-559 has been commissioned in North Tyneside.

Tommy Brown, a 16-year-old NAAFI canteen assistant from North Shields, was serving in the destroyer HMS Petard in October, 1942.

With the ship's First Lieutenant, Anthony Fasson, and AB Colin Grazier, he dived over the side to board the U-boat, which had been forced to the surface after a 12-hour attack.

Fasson and Grazier handed the code books to Tommy, who climbed up the conning tower ladder of the sinking submarine to pass them on to the Petard's waiting seaboat.

He returned to the interior of the U-boat, on the third occasion shouting warnings to Fasson and Grazier to come up immediately as it was noticeably settling lower in the water.

But the two Royal Navy men left it too late - and both went down with the boat as Tommy fell back in the water and was pulled into the sea boat.

The code books were to provide the vital key to the cracking at Bletchley Park of the German Enigma cypher system - which in turn was instrumental in the Allied victory of the crucial Battle of the Atlantic.

Fasson and Grazier were each posthumously awarded the George Cross and Tommy was recommended for the George Medal - but the youngster never lived to receive it.

To his intense disappointment was sent home for being below the minimum age for active service, and he died in another heroic act - this time attempting to rescue his sister from a fire at his home early in 1945.

His George Medal was later presented to his mother at Buckingham Palace

Now North Tyneside Veterans Committee, in partnership with North Tyneside Council, have commissioned the stained-glass window, by Consett glass artist Maralyn O'Keefe, at the Saville Exchange Building, North Shields.

When they heard about the plan, NAAFI immediately offered to meet the costs.

The window will be dedicated in the presence of Tommy's surviving brothers and sisters at a ceremony on Sunday, February 17, following a parade and march past up Howard Street.

Also attending will be representatives of the Royal Navy, the HMS Petard Association, Bletchley Park Trust and NAAFI, along with the Mayor of North Tyneside and the Lord Lieutenant of Tyne and Wear.