In Memoriam

[wulliam]

What will you be doing at 2.30am on New Year's Day?

It will be exactly 90 years since the Iolaire hit rocks and sank - Britain's worst peacetime shipping disaster since the Titanic. Have you ever heard of it?

Men were returning from 4 years at war - their families were waiting eagerly to see them again. And they drowned within sight of the harbour...just a few metres from shore.

My granny (now 97) remembers her father (my avatar) going down to the beach in his best Sunday clothes out of respect for the dead that he would find on the beach and bring ashore.

Here's a longer article:
Culture Hebrides - Island holidays in the Gaelic Heartland of Scotland

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

No, I can't say I have heard of that ship name at all. I'm going to take a look at your link.

[herky]

Thank you for the link and the reminder Wulliam - such a sad end to the heroes of the war.
I just can't imagine how the families could have faced such a tragedy.
I have quickly read through the story but later I will read it more carefully and take it all in.
Best wishes.
herky

[SueinKent]

I haven't heard of this either, I will take a look at the story.

[Simon]

What a story - why haven't we heard about it before ? All the more poignent as it happened so soon after the Titanic and lessons had obviously not been learned.

Perhaps the powers that be might consider accidental deaths at sea as a topic for the magazine. I have a relative who died in the Monarch disaster near Ilfracombe in 1887 - a cracking story which lead to a change in the law but not one anyone will have come across.

[Penelope]

Redacted

[wulliam]

A quick shameless nudge for my post as the 90th anniversary approaches.

[kylejustin]

sorry, was sloshed. in aussie time, but. your time, was reading this thread i think, sozz, im really bad with time(international):o:o

[herky]

Hi William and all,
At 7pm tonight - BBC 2 Scotland , a programme about the Iolaire.
It should be interesting but may be in Gaelic but hopefully will be subtitled.
herky

[herky]

Just to add that it is subtitled in English.
herky