Five times Bill White was presented with the white feather, symbol of cowardice. Yet he was anything but a coward.

As a little boy, Stuart White was frightened of cowboys and Indians - so his father Bill stuck pictures of them on his bedroom wall.

Bill lived by the motto "you've got to face your fear" and years after his premature death at the age of 46, that is what his son remembers most about him.

So it was with surprise that Stuart, of Hollingbury, Brighton, discovered that during the Second World War, his father had, on five occasions, been presented with the white feather.

But his detractors got it wrong.

In fact, the story of his dedicated work as an ambulance driver in wartime London was used by newspapers of the time as evidence of the bravery of those men often accused of cowardice because they were not in the Army.

Now Stuart wants to share his father's story in the run-up to Remembrance Day in tribute to the forgotten heroes of the war - the members of the Civil Defence.

His discovery of an old London newspaper article detailing Bill White's bravery proved poignant for Stuart, given his own background.

Stuart served in the Army from 1974 to 1984, seeing active service in Northern Ireland.

Stuart said: "Nothing ever fazed him. I was only five when he passed away but I remember if he ever saw I was frightened of anything, he would tell me it was no good running away."

Bill White spent the war in London but moved to Patcham, Brighton, in the Fifties and worked for The Argus as a setter.

He and his wife had left London after agreeing to take in Stuart, then three months old, who had been born illegitimately to a friend.

Sadly, Bill died about five years later, suffering complications from a serious chest infection he got during the war.

His wartime bravery was summed up in the 1945 newspaper article.

It begins: "The reason why Bill isn't in the Army is that he is doing an equally good job out of it and it won't hurt anyone - unless it is the "white feather" clique - to know that Bill has braved as great a peril as any soldier.

"Anybody can be conscripted to do this or that but "guts" just comes voluntarily."

The writer continued: "Foreign observers here have cabled back that the ordeal of the rescue parties, the wardens and the fire service, has been comparable with front line battles of artillery and tanks.

"From all quarters, officials are receiving messages of praise from the higher-ups. Some of these do mention the personnel of the Civil Defence - the real heroes, who braved the full fury of aerial bombardment and toiled night and day with their hands to recover mangled and broken bodies. Bill is one of them.

"I have ascertained he is the man of whom nearly everyone is speaking in connection with the Palace Square incident during the height of the flying bomb attacks when a woman and two children were trapped at the top of a three-storey building.

"'Blimey', Bill exclaimed, 'they've got to be got down somehow!'

"It seemed impossible to get at them but the next second he was climbing up a pipe which was only supported by four loose bolts.

"Finally, he reached a room but could not get to the victims because of a wall. With his bare hands, he punched his way through the lathe and plaster until he had made an opening. He then shouted down for the fire escape which had arrived and lowered them to safety.

"After that, he was held upside down for almost an hour to recover a man who had been trapped. Later, he worked for nearly two hours and got a boy out of the debris."

Meanwhile, Bill and his family were facing their own tragedies.

A Spitfire took the roof off his house and crashed about 20 yards from his back garden.

He moved, only for a German aircraft to drop a load of unexploded bombs in a field behind his new home. One later went off, taking half the house with it.

He moved again but an almost direct hit finished that house off too.

The article finishes: "If anyone again feels like giving a "white feather" to somebody, he should stop to think."

Stuart said: "He was a very brave man."

When Bill died, Stuart's stepmother returned to London and the youngster was placed in local authority care in Brighton.

He was fostered until he left to join the Army as a teenager.

Stuart, who later returned to Brighton and now has two teenage sons of his own, tracked his stepmother down in 1996 and since then has been learning more about Bill.

He would love to speak to anyone who knew Bill or worked with him at The Argus.

Anyone who can help can contact Stuart on 01273 556577.