I just find it more amazing that prior to WWII, he served on the ill-fated H.M.S. Hood, and had he not been re-assigned, he could well have died when Bismark sent her to the bottom.
As a side note, Patrick Troughton was almost lost when the ship he was on was sunk at the start of the war, ISTR, and he later served as captain of a minesweeper.