The raid on Dieppe in German-occupied France on August 19, 1942, carried out by troops of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division supported by two British Commando units and 50 United States Rangers, had the immediate purpose of gaining experience of an opposed landing and capture of a port on an enemy-held coast. It was also intended as a response to Stalin's plea to "do something" to try to draw German reinforcements away from the Russian front.

Captain Patrick Porteous was with Lord Lovat's 4th Commando, which was given the task of silencing the German six-gun battery near Varengeville, some five miles west of Dieppe, which could bring flanking fire to bear on the landing craft and beaches to be used by units of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division at Dieppe itself.

Lord Lovat decided to land a detachment, commanded by Major Mills-Roberts, on the small, difficult beach under the cliffs directly below the battery to pin down and distract the German gunners. He himself was to land with the main body on an easier beach further west near Quiberville, and to execute a wide outflanking movement to attack the gun emplacements from the rear.

Porteous, who was to act as liaison officer between the two groups fighting to suppress the battery, was shot at close range through the hand, the bullet entering his upper arm. He closed with his assailant, disarmed him and then killed him with his own bayonet, just as the German was taking aim at a British sergeant, whose life was thus saved.

Soon afterwards Lovat launched his main assault on the rear of the battery across some 250 yards of open ground and through the barbed-wire surrounding the gun positions. The two officers and the sergeant-major leading the assault were killed. Porteous dashed across the open ground despite withering machinegun fire, rallied the men and carried the battery with a bayonet assault. During the charge he was again shot, this time through the thigh, but went on to supervise the destruction of the guns before collapsing from loss of blood.

The Varengeville battery was successfully silenced; Porteous was safely evacuated as the commando withdrew to England, having completed its task but with the loss of a quarter of its strength.

Patrick Anthony Porteous was the son of Brigadier-General C. McL. Porteous of the 7th Gurkha Rifles. He was educated at Wellington College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, before being commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1937.

At the "Shop", as Woolwich was known, he showed all the selfless determination and courage that he was to display at Dieppe. Pat, as he was known in the Army, was not a good horseman, but he was determined never to fail in the riding schools. Unseated on one occasion, he was trampled on by the following horses, suffering a badly broken jaw, but he never gave up. He was equally stalwart in the boxing ring and on the rugby field.

Like many other exceptionally brave men, Porteous was one of the nicest as well. Quiet, self-effacing, and charming with a nice sense of humour, he was an excellent companion, always conscious of the interests of others, and particularly of the wellbeing of his soldiers.

His first unit was the 6th Anti-Aircraft Brigade with which he went to France in 1939. When he returned to England through Dunkirk, he volunteered for commando training and was sent to 4th Commando in 3rd Special Service Brigade at the end of 1940.

Having recovered from his Dieppe wounds, he returned to 4th Commando in time to take part in the invasion of Normandy as Lovat's second-in-command. Again entrusted with flank protection, 4th Commando landed and took Ouistreham at the mouth of the Orne Canal, successfully linking up with troops of the 6th Airborne Division holding the Pegasus Bridge to secure the eastern flank of the beachhead.

He returned to the Gunners in the autumn of 1944 and ended the war with 1st Air Landing Light Regiment in 1st Airborne Division, which he joined after Arnhem. He saw no further major actions, but thereafter became closely associated with airborne forces and went with 53rd Air Landing Light Regiment to Palestine with 6th Airborne Division.

After attending the Staff College, Camberley, in 1946, he was appointed Brigade Major, Royal Artillery in 16th Airborne Division, and was given his first battery command, 96th Airborne Light Battery in 1948 before spending three happy years as an instructor at Sandhurst from 1950 to 1953.

Tragedy struck soon after he left Sandhurst on posting to GHQ Far East Land Forces. His first wife, Lois, daughter of Major-General Sir Horace Roome, a former Engineer-in-Chief, India, died very suddenly just three months after their arrival in Singapore, leaving him with a son and a daughter.

He stayed on in the Far East until returning to join the 14th Field Regiment in England at the end of 1955. He spent 1958 at the RAF Staff College and 1959 as assistant military secretary at Southern Command.

Perhaps the peacetime appointment which he most enjoyed was that of Commander of the Junior Leaders' Regiment Royal Artillery at Bramcote, Nuneaton, from 1960 to 1963.

His last two appointments in the Army were as Colonel General Staff to the Director of Land/Air Warfare in the Ministry of Defence, 1963-66, and then as Commander of the Rheindahlen Garrison, administering Headquarters BAOR, 1966-69.

He married his second wife, Deirdre, daughter of the late Eric King in 1955. They had three daughters. Porteous's death reduces to 22 the number of living holders of the Victoria Cross.

There is a street in Dieppe named after him, Rue Capitaine Porteous.

Colonel Patrick Porteous, VC, hero of the Dieppe raid, was born on January 1, 1918. He died on October 9 aged 82