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The real-life hero of this summer’s blockbuster movie Dunkirk, which portrays the valiant effort of naval officers and civilians to evacuate more than 300,000 Allied soldiers trapped by the Germans during the Second World War, was a Canadian who grew up in Montreal and attended McGill University.

Yet the name of James Campbell Clouston, who is credited with saving close to 200,000 soldiers as German planes bombed and strafed the pier while he calmly ushered troops onto ships for five days, is never mentioned in the film and remains largely unknown in Canada.

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“He’s one of those great unsung Canadians who, in a pivotal moment in time, does extraordinary things, dies, and then goes completely forgotten,” said University of Ottawa history professor Serge Durflinger.

Clouston’s son has protested the lack of acknowledgement, saying the character played by Kenneth Branagh should have had a Canadian accent, and that his father warranted at least a mention in the credits.