During the First World War ; he obtained a pilots certificate but due to the lack of aircraft he transferred to Royal Naval Armoured Car Division . In 1915 he was seconded to the Imperial Russian Army to fight against Turkish forces in the Caucasus Campaign . In 1918 he had reached the rank of lieutenant commander and was highly decorated ; he received the DSO in 1916 , with bar in 1917 and a MID , along with Russian and Romanian decorations ; such as the St George of the 4th class . He was Conservative Member of Parliament ( MP ) for Blackburn from 1931 to 1945 . Smiles was re-elected in 1935 but stood for Down in Northern Ireland at the 1945 Westminster election , as a Unionist . The two-seat constituency was split in 1950 into North Down and South Down . Smiles won North Down that year and remained its MP until his death in 1953 ; he lost his life in the sinking of off Larne Lough , in the Great Storm . He was succeeded by his daughter , Patricia Ford . He was the great-grandfather of explorer Bear Grylls
Great Storm
North Sea flood of 1953
Walter Smiles