A HEROIC Taunton man is to receive the outstanding bravery award at the Pride of Britain Awards.

David Groves, 32, can be seen collecting his accolade from hosts Carol Vorderman and Ashley Banjo at the ceremony televised on ITV tonight (Thursday, October 27) at 8pm.

The County Gazette reported how Leading Seaman David and a colleagues saved the lives of 27 crew from a blazing transporter ship off the French coast in March 2019.

David was in charge of a small boat that struggled for four hours on towering seas to rescue every man aboard the stricken car/container ship Grande America.

READ MORE: Taunton man saves 27 men from blazing ship.

He was serving on the Royal Navy frigate HMS Argyll returning to Plymouth after nine months in the Asia-Pacific region when a mayday came through from the 28,000 merchant ship 150 miles south west of Brest.

He and shipmate Able Seaman Alex Harvey volunteered to carry out the rescue, even though it was on the absolute limit of safe boat operations.

The actions earned David the Queen’s Gallantry Medal, while Alex, from Hull, won the Queen’s Commendation for Bravery.

David said: "One minute you could see a ship on fire, the next it was hidden by a wall of water. The closer we got, the more engulfed we were in the smoke."

When he and Alex reached the merchant ship, they faced a lengthy wait as the crew struggled to launch the lifeboat.

When it eventually launched, it hit the water with such force that it left the vessel impossible to manoeuvre.

David managed to bring his boat nose-to-nose with the lifeboat and with Alex on the bow judging the right moment as the two craft moved up and down, four of the merchant crew jumped into Argyll’s boat.

Alex said: "When the first guy jumped I had to grab him to prevent him going overboard. I thought to myself, 'This is a bit hairy'.”

Next the pair tried towing the lifeboat, but the line parted in the heavy sea, so they nudged the boat towards the frigate “like a bumper car, or pinball”, said David.

They then pinned the lifeboat against the frigate’s side so the Grande America’s crew could climb the scrambling net or be hauled up in a hoist.

David added: “They were cold, tired, suffering from the effects of fire, smoke, shock and they’d been bobbing around in the sea for a couple of hours."