Remembering the Raceland: Righting a Wrong

During the Second World War one of the most perilous duties of any Allied ship was to round the North Cape under threat of attack from the Luftwaffe, U-boats and the Arctic weather. In March 1942 one of the hundreds of merchant ships which braved those waters in the PQ Arctic convoys sailing that route became one of the victims.

The Clydebuilt SS Raceland had been the Italian owned ship Ircana berthed in Florida. In 1941 she was requisitioned, passed into US ownership, and as was common for the day was registered under her new name in Panama. The ports of the USA were filled with sailors from all over the world in 1942 and her crew was as multi-national as her background.  The bulk of her crew were Scandinavian – Norwegians, Danes and Swedes but there were also Estonians, Dutch, Canadian, English and Scots sailing her.

On 28^th March 1942 the Raceland was attacked by Junkers 88 Luftwaffe bombers as she rounded the tip of Norway on her way to Murmansk as part of convoy PQ13. After taking several hits the Raceland’s engines gave up and the ship began to sink. She was already a slow ship and the convoy couldn’t wait for her as she settled in the water. It was a still day in the Arctic waters and with their ship sinking beneath them the forty-five crew took to four lifeboats in the hope of reaching the fairly close Norwegian coast. Their luck took a turn for the worse that night as the weather changed and a storm scattered the lifeboats and capsized two, killing all occupants.

For the next few days the two remaining lifeboats endured the hardships of small boats in Arctic waters. Exposure took its toll in both boats and many men died before they separately reached the inhospitable shores of northern Norway; one boat after five days and the other after eleven. The bodies of those who died after reaching land first were recovered, but were buried at a remote location on the island of Söröy. All the Scots sailing on the Raceland had died on the lifeboats and had no grave but the sea.

A few men did survive, and it is from the survivors - passing the details via the Red Cross, from a German prisoner-of-war camp, to the next of kin of their dead shipmates - that we know this story of the Raceland’s fate.

Unfortunately  - and shamefully -the Scots of the Raceland who laid down their lives for freedom were not commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission after the war. Out of ten Commonwealth crew members of the ship only one was commemorated by the CWGC. I think it is no coincidence that Ship's Boy Roy Currie - who was one of those whose bodies were recovered on land - is the only one commemorated. Either the German or Norwegian authorities will have recorded his death and burial, and ensured his recording in the official registers. The rest have been lost in a gap of recording British and Canadian nationals serving in non-British registered ships. The recording of British sailors lost in British ships during both World Wars was already patchy; adding an extra level of administration had obviously been too much. In April 1942 the US Coastguard informed the British Consulate in Washington of the British nationals who were missing after the loss of the Raceland. We don’t know if this was the only occasion when the details of the names were passed on to UK authorities from the US authorities but there are other paper trails between next of kin and US authorities and ship owners to suspect it wasn’t.

A nephew of one of the Dutchmen who died when the Raceland foundered has been researching the fate of the ship and the men for a book he is going to publish. Jos Odjink in the Netherlands has already pieced together the facts around the sinking of the ship and has researched the background to many of the crew. It is thanks to Jos’s hard work that we know so much about the Raceland and we are very grateful that he has put a lot of the details online.

http://www.ss-raceland.com/indexEnglish.html  

Consulting archives in London and Washington whilst on business trips, Jos has uncovered several useful documents. From Jos’s information and the work of some members of the Scottish War Memorials Project this is what we know of the Scottish sailors of the Raceland so far:

John G Keogh

He was born at Carntyne Street, Shettleston on 28th March 1902. The ship was sunk on his 40th birthday.

His parents were John and Ellen Keough (nee McKeown) and in the 1911 Census he was one of five children. His next-of-kin address during the war was given as 703 Shettleston Road, Glasgow - his mother was living there. She died in the same location in July 1949. One of the survivors wrote to her from a PoW camp and said her son had died the day after the sinking. A Merchant Navy index card from 1937 for John Keough survives and gives his rating as Fireman.

James Joseph Burns

No date of birth has been found yet, but his age is given as 38 by the US Coastguard so it should be around 1904. No James Joseph Burns has been found to match this date of birth.

His next-of-kin address was given as 117 Florence Street, Glasgow - it was his mother who was living there. The same survivor in the PoW camp who gave information to John Keogh’s mother told James Burns’ mother that her son had died in a lifeboat on the 2nd of April.

Hugh McKenzie

This man is more difficult to track down and not just because of the name. He was listed by the US Coastguard as 48 years old, so he should have a date of birth around the mid 1890's. His next of kin address is given as 1913, 75th St Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio. Jos thinks he may have taken US citizenship even though the US Coastguard sent his details to the British Embassy.

We have managed to find a Merchant Navy index card for a Hugh Brown Mckenzie with a birth of 2nd November 1896 in Glasgow which is a possible lead but will need to be confirmed. Interestingly it also features a photo of the man concerned.  

Could this be Hugh McKenzie?

Jack Kleinberg

This man is actually listed on the SNWM roll of honour at Edinburgh Castle. This is because his sister approached the Secretary to the SNWM Trustees in the 1990’s with the information she had about her brother’s death. The SNWM entry says he was born in Glasgow:

Able Seaman Jack Kleinberg

Place of birth: Glasgow

Date of death: 28 March 1942

Theatre of death: Unknown

SNWM roll: MERCHANT NAVY & FISHING FLEETS (Part 1)

Unit attached to MERCHANT NAVY & FISHING FLEETS

Other detail S.S. "RACELAND"

Jos Odjink has found a letter from Kleinberg’s fiancée -an Etta Bernstein of Glasgow -looking for information from the ship owners about his fate.

Along with his place of birth, that would seem to suggest he was a Glaswegian but intriguingly he is also listed on the Jewish War Memorial in Piershill Cemetery in Edinburgh. This memorial also gives his age as 23. It was the investigation of this man’s name on which prompted the SMRG investigation of the fate of the other Scottish crewmen of the Raceland –

http://warmemscot.s4.bizhat.com/viewtopic.php?t=8363&mforum=warmemscot

Jewish War Memorial in Piershill Cemetery

Earlier this year Jack Kleinberg’s name came to the attention of Martin Sugarman. Martin has set himself the task of identifying Jewish servicemen and women who had died during the World Wars but had not been commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. We passed on all we had on Jack Kleinberg to Martin as did Jos Odjink. Martin lives in London and is able to make regular visits to The National Archives and was able to track down the vital pieces of information which could be used as evidence in progressing Jack Kleinberg’s case with the CWGC.  The good news is Jack Kleinberg has been accepted by the CWGC for commemoration and he will be added to their database. At some point in the future his name will also be added to the Tower Hill Memorial to the Merchant Navy in London.

The other Commonwealth war dead lost on the Raceland deserve to be commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and the three Scots by the Scottish National War Memorial. With Martin’s successful submission to the CWGC that commemoration looks a step closer and the SMRG will look for the evidence and provide them to the relevant authorities. 

It’s not just the men of the Raceland. Other Scots serving on US merchant ships are not commemorated either. There will be some amount of work to identify the unrecorded Scots and get them commemorated, but the men who manned our lifeline, the unsung heroes of the Second World War, deserve nothing less.  Men like:

Thomas Mullin. Lost on the Nathaniel Green 02/24/43 F/W from Rothesay, Bute, Scotland

C. W Hunter. Lost on the Nimba 09/13/42 Scotland

Joseph Sutherland. Lost on the Rochester 01/30/42 3rd Engineer, from Glasgow, Scotland

Edward M Mackin. Lost on the Tambour 09/26/42 Donkeyman, from Scotland, Aged 32

John McRae. Lost on the Winkler 02/23/43 Able Seaman, from Scotland

Hugh J. Smith. Lost on the Winkler 02/23/43 Ordinary Seaman, from Scotland

Private war memorials in churches

Just south of Dunnotar Castle in the old county of Kincardine is the small village of Catterline. There is no civic war memorial in the village but there are memorials in the Church of Scotland and Episcopal Church to the men of the village who lost their lives in the World Wars. The cross in the churchyard of St James’ Episcopal Church lists eight First World War names and one for the Second World War. Like many church memorials is lists only names and gives no other details such as rank, unit or date of death to help anyone researching the names. There are also two men with the same name - William Stephen - which is always a challenge when there are no other details. 

Church War Memorial, St James' Catterline

Luckily, inside the church is a private memorial to one of the William Stephens with more information to help identify who he was. 

Private Memorial in St James', Catterline

Unlike civic memorials or other public memorials, privately purchased memorials often have a lot of information on them. They can be simple memorials such as an inscription on a headstone of they could be a brass or marble plaque on a church wall; or sometimes they are stained glass windows or other church fittings. Private memorials often give details of the cause and place of death and family information. Sometimes they will give the citations for gallantry awards or their war service before their deaths. A private memorial such as the one to William Stephen should be a very useful source of information for researchers then.  

The one in Catterline Church certainly has plenty of information. It records William Stephen’s rank, ship, next of kin, date of death and age. It was erected by the officers and engineers of the Australian Transport ship A.49 – a ship used to ferry Australian service personnel and cargo. Engineer Stephen had been in the crew of the SS “Seang Choon” before it had been requisitioned in 1915 as the HMAT 49 and had remained on the ship – still in the Mercantile Marine – when it was under Australian orders.

Engineer Stephen died in early 1917 but a search on the fate of the ship shows it was not lost in early January but in mid-1917. The HMAT 49 was torpedoed by U-87 off Ireland in June 1917. There is also no record of the ship being in any action which would have caused the death of Engineer Stephen.

Stephen’s private memorial records that he died on “Active Service” on  2nd January 1917 but a search on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database does not show an entry for him, neither does the Scottish National War Memorial database. The CWGC and SNWM have strict criteria for inclusion for men of the Mercantile Marine on their databases. Engineer Stephen may have faced many of the same risks as his Royal Navy colleagues on the high seas but if he did not die as a result of enemy action then he would not qualify for inclusion on the CWGC or SNWM databases. The inscription “Active Service” is a red herring. This is unfortunately quite common on private headstones where ranks, units and dates can all be inscribed incorrectly and send researchers down blind alleys.

As it turns out 2nd Engineer William Stephen did not die on active service. At the time of his death he was not even at sea, he was in Greenwich Hospital and died of Meningitis & Hypostatic Pneumonia. If he had been in the Royal Navy rather than a civilian organisation he would have qualified for commemoration. He is one of many Scottish mariners who did their bit in the war but are not remembered in official records as a war death. However he is still remembered in his home village, and by the Scottish Military Research Group Commemorations Project (SMRGCP)

Light fantastic for Navy tribute

We've blogged about the Merchant Navy memorial in Leith before, and it seems that it has proven to be a popular memorial, receiving up to 100 visitors a day.

This article from The Scotsman discusses a proposal for the memorial to be lit at night.

It was created to stand as a tribute to the thousands of merchant seamen who gave their lives in British conflicts.

The Merchant Navy Memorial on the shore at Leith has since become a shrine to visitors from around the world.

In fact, the bronze statue is so popular that a planning application has been lodged to light it up at night in response to demand.

The memorial was opened by HRH The Princess Royal, patron of the Merchant Navy Memorial Trust, in November last year and since then has seen close to 100 visitors a day.

The nearby Malmaison Hotel reported that guests often asked why it was not lit up, so the trust has agreed to fix a spotlight to the roof of the hotel that will make sure the memorial can be seen 24 hours a day.The light is to be fixed to a part of the roof which will make it "invisible" yet will create a dramatic effect in illuminating the statue below.

Artist Jill Watson, who designed and created the memorial, has been closely consulted about the floodlighting and is said to be thrilled at the tests.

She said: "I am delighted that the memorial is to be floodlit. It will make the scenes around the column even more dramatic. Sculpture comes alive with light.

"And it means that visitors to the area will be able to see the monument in the evening, during the winter months."

Gordon Milne, the founder of the Merchant Navy Memorial Trust (Scotland), said: "The memorial has been far more popular than we ever imagined, and there have been people coming from all over the world to see it.

"It has been far beyond above our expectations, and it is perhaps because so many people come to Leith to find out about the maritime history, but there is not much there to visit.

"People from all over the world have visited it, and many of them have seen it as a very personal experience, a place to remember loved ones who were lost in conflict at sea.

"The management at the Malmaison said that a lot of people had asked why it wasn't lit up at night. We have taken that on board and come up with a design that will see it lit up in a very special way.

"We did a test of the light a few weeks ago and the effect was very dramatic, very striking, and it really shows the statue in all of it's glory."

Mr Milne said it was hoped the floodlighting would be put in place within the next few weeks after an agreement was reached with Malmaison.

The £100,000 memorial was put up to mark the loss of the 6500 Scottish merchant seamen, who died in the first and second world wars, the Falklands War and other disasters.

Scottish Arctic Star Campaigners fight on

The men who sailed in and escorted the convoys from Wester Ross to North Russia during the Second World War are continuing to apply the pressure on the government to honour the promises made in opposition to award a campaign medal for their war service.

This is an article from today's Scotsman which goes into quite a lot of detail on the perils they faced during the war and the fight they've had over the past twenty years to get the reward they deserve.

A memorial at Loch Ewe is mentioned in the text. It is on the Scottish War Memorials Project

From today's Scotsman:

A Few Good Men: The World War II heroes in search of recognition
Published Date: 16 February 2011
By David Maddox

They faced Arctic conditions and enemy fire to get supplies through to the Soviet Union in the darkest days of the Second World War. Now these sailors face another battle - to get their contribution recognised by the government

On 22 June, 1941, Adolf Hitler made a decision that would eventually prove instrumental in the defeat of Nazi Germany, when he declared war on the Soviet Union. In the dark days following Dunkirk, it was a development which was to dramatically change the lives of thousands of Royal Navy and merchant seamen who were plunged into Britain's most arduous naval campaign of the war to date.

In just a matter of weeks, the first Arctic convoys sailed from Loch Ewe in north-west Scotland to take essential supplies to Britain's new ally, Stalin's Soviet Union.

The journeys to Archangel and Murmansk involved sailing through a gauntlet of air, submarine and battleship attack in temperatures which plunged to minus -60C at times, so cold that if a sailor's bare hand touched the outside of the ship his skin and flesh were torn away.

The conditions and the constant attacks as well as the threat of mines accounted for the lives of around 3,000 merchant and Royal Navy sailors, around 9 per cent of all those who sailed, the highest casualty rate of any of the sea campaigns.

The ships sailed along the line of Arctic ice at the northern most extreme in an effort to minimise the threat of air attack, but this did not stop the dive bombers flying in and causing mayhem.

One grim feature of the campaign was the use of "suicide" flights from catapult aircraft merchantmen (Cam) ships to protect the convoys. The fighter planes were flung into the air with the use of a sling when enemy aircraft were sighted. With nowhere to land when they were shot or ran out of fuel, pilots were forced to crash into the sea and certain death.

Now, with the 70th anniversary of the first Russian Convoy fast approaching in August, the surviving veterans believe that their efforts in a campaign many consider was pivotal to the success of the war have still been largely unrecognised by the British government.

Yesterday, a reception was held in the House of Lords paid for by a leading Russian banker, Dr George Piskov, to honour many of the last remaining convoy veterans, all now in the eighties and nineties.
The reception saw veterans mingling with MPs, ministers and members of the Lords and involved the first screening of a new documentary on the convoys by Desmond Cox.

But prior to that, a letter was delivered to the Prime Minister, David Cameron, at Downing Street by six veterans including Commander Eddie Grenfell, originally from Peterhead, who has, since 1997, led the Russian Convoy Club's fight to get an official medal for the Arctic campaign. The letter represents part of a last-ditch effort to have the Arctic campaign officially recognised.

The issue for Cdr Grenfell, and many of the other convoy veterans, is that when the campaign medals were decided for the Second World War, the Arctic theatre was ignored.

Instead it was included with the Battle of the Atlantic, a separate campaign to keep Britain supplied during the German U-boat blockade.

But even the Atlantic Star, in a cruel twist, was denied some veterans of the Arctic campaign. Uniquely for campaign medals, recipients of the Atlantic Star had to have fulfilled a six-month qualifying period, as opposed to just one day. This meant that many of those who sailed on the convoys and lost limbs in the extreme cold did not serve long enough to qualify for even this award.

"It is clear that the Arctic campaign was ignored because our relations with the Soviet Union were poor at the end of the war," said Cdr Grenfell.

"The Soviet Union was becoming the next enemy and there was no appetite to recognise those who had helped them out.

"The Atlantic Star qualification was then set up in such a way as to make sure that nobody who only served in the Arctic could qualify."

He explained that this was why veterans waited until the 1990s, after the Cold War ended, to launch their campaign for medal recognition. But he is clear that the campaign should have been recognised separately with its own medal. "It was crucial because those supplies basically kept the Soviet Union in the war especially in the early days," he said. "I spent several months in Murmansk in hospital and then in a Soviet army camp recovering from my injuries after being blown into the water when the ship I was on – the SS Empire Lawrence – was hit by five bombs. At that time in Murmansk, we could hear the fighting just a few miles away. The Germans were very close.

"Without the supplies we brought, the Soviet Union would have struggled to hold out."

He added: "The campaign was also in a different geographical sphere with separate aims to the Battle of the Atlantic. I sailed in both campaigns and while the Battle of the Atlantic was tough, the Arctic campaign was unimaginably worse."

As things stand, the main memorials to the Arctic Convoys is at Loch Ewe where a new museum has also opened. There are also moves to get the convoys on to the national curriculum, particularly by the Scottish Government, covering lessons in history and international affairs.
But, in opposition, parties have promised to deliver the medal and then failed to keep their pledge in office.

Prior to winning power back in 1997, Labour said it would create an Arctic Star, only to refuse to allow any recognition and then eventually grudgingly producing an Arctic Emblem in 2006 after a long campaign by veterans.

However, both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in opposition also promised to create an Arctic Star.

Defence minister Gerald Howarth has since made sure it is included in a review of how medals are sanctioned.

And last month, at Prime Minister's Questions, David Cameron appeared to suggest that he agreed the issue should be speeded up and a medal created because of the age of the veterans involved.

He told MPs that he had "considerable sympathy" with the campaign and had raised a "number of questions" with the Ministry of Defence.
He added: "Many of them (veterans] are coming to the end of their lives and it would be good if we could do something more to recognise what they have done."

However, the Tory MP for Gosport, Caroline Dinenage, who had asked the question, has since admitted she is concerned about a lack of progress.

She told The Scotsman: "It appears that the Ministry of Defence is dragging its heels. I take the view that no news is not good news.
"I received a letter from the son of one of the veterans recently who has died since I asked my question; it shows that we do not have much time left to honour these brave men who are now all in their eighties and nineties."

An early day motion was put down on the issue by SNP Westminster leader and defence spokesman Angus Robertson, who is more blunt in his criticism of the coalition government.

The motion has been signed by 47 MPs from almost every political party in the House of Commons and he believes that there is wide political will for a quick solution.

Mr Robertson said: "It is time for the government to put things right, and what better moment to do it than the 70th anniversary of the convoys.

"The Ministry of Defence is dragging its feet as usual and so the Prime Minister should personally intervene, knock heads together and announce the creation of a campaign medal without any further delay."

Under new leader Ed Miliband, the Labour Party is now also supporting the campaign. Labour's veterans' front-bench spokeswoman Gemma Doyle said: "The Arctic campaign was vital in sustaining the fight on the Eastern Front during the Second World War. It is right and proper that all who fought have their patriotic efforts recognised."

But a spokeswoman for the MoD said that the veterans would have to wait until later this year for the medal review to be completed. She said: "It is part of a wider medal review which will report later this year. We do not have a date for that as yet."

It is a statement that has been met with suspicion among the veterans. Jock Dempster, of Dunbar, who is now chairman of the Russian Convoy Club in Scotland, said: "The problem is that the MoD have always dragged their feet.

"I think it is partly because they still are suspicious towards Russia. But actually the Arctic convoys should be used as a bridge to build friendship between us and Russia."

In fact, the Russians have given the Arctic veterans three memorial medals and regularly invite them as guests of honour to Second World War commemorations and receptions where they are feted by the country's leading politicians.

"We are treated like heroes when we visit Russia," said Mr Dempster, who speaks fluent Russian.

"The last time I visited with other veterans we were met with marching bands, parades and some of the most senior officers in the navy.
Sadly, we have never been afforded the same recognition in this country. We always have the impression that the government would prefer to ignore us."

SS "Politician" runs aground off Eriskay - this day in Scottish Military History - 1941

A bit of a tenuous military connection to today's "On this day.." since it is about a shipwreck of a merchant ship due to a storm. However it happened during wartime and the contents of the ship's hold were rationed in the UK at the time.

The ship in question was the Steamship "Politician" which ran aground onto the rocks off Eriskay on this day seventy years ago. Hundreds of merchant ships were lost during the war due to enemy action or an act of God, but this one was special to the locals because amongst its cargo were 28,000 cases of malt whisky.

The ship didn't break up when it hit the rocks and the crew escaped to shore and were taken in by nearby islanders. Word soon spread round the island that 264,000 bottle of whisky were on their doorstep. Soon men from Eriskay and other Hebridean islands were making night time trips to the ship. Apart from whisky there were also thousands of ten shilling notes destined for Jamaica and they too started to disappear from the ship.

A local customs officer was well aware of what was happening and eventually managed to get the hull of the 'Politician' blown up which allowed the forces of nature to complete the job of destroying the ship and what was left of its cargo. He was too late to stop at least 24,000 untaxed bottles of whisky and an undisclosed sum of money making their way into circulation though.

The incident was made into the Ealing comedy "Whisky Galore!" in 1949. Being based on Compton McKenzie's 1947 novel of the same name. In a rare move for the time most of the film was shot in location in the Hebrides with Barra standing in for the fictitious Island of Todday. Here's a wee taster...

Who's Who in Scottish Military History - Admiral John McClure

You have probably never heard of Admiral John McClure but he's one of hundreds of Victorian Scotsmen who spent a life at sea and became ships’ masters across the globe. Before the First World War British ships made up over 40% of the world's merchant shipping but there were also many more British captains and officers in crews of the ships of other countries. You'll find references to them in charge of ships of many nations in many places and a good many of them were Scots.

It was in the waters of the South China Sea where young John McClure learnt his trade. Born in 1837 in Kirkcudbright; he was the son of an architect but he wasn't interested in following in his father's footsteps. He was taken on by the Taku Tug & Lighter Company (later part of the Hong Kong firm Jardine Matheson) and steadily rose through the ranks and in 1883 he returned home to take command of the Barrow-in-Furness built ship the 'Kow Shing' and sailed her to her home port. By the 1890’s he was one of the most experienced and respected mariners in China.

Late Nineteenth Century China was in a terrible state. The British had taken Hong Kong by force in 1842, and in 1860 the British and French ransacked Peking. Imperial power had declined within China and there was civil war between warlords and the Emperor. Any strong invader could pretty much help themselves to a piece of China. The Russians had occupied the north of the country, France and Britain had the run of the Eastern Seaboard and Japan had her eyes on the Chinese province of Korea.

By 1894 things came to a head with Japan. Japan landed troops in Korea. China responded by sending troops to the north of Korea. To do this they hired the best man in the area - John McClure, to organise a fleet of transport ships.

For his new role McClure was appointed Assistant Admiral of the Pei-Yang squadron in the Imperial Chinese Navy and a Mandarin of the highest class; not bad for a man from Kirkcudbright. Unfortunately the Chinese admirals and generals were no match for the Japanese and by late 1894 they were besieged in their home port of Wei-hai-wei. In February 1895 the Chinese attempted to break the siege with a combined attack from land and sea but it failed miserably.

The Chinese realised they had to surrender but rather than lose face all the senior officers committed suicide. That left poor old Admiral McClure as the most senior officer present and it was up to him to sign the surrender on behalf of the Chinese.

That was the end of John McClure's years in China. Taken to Japan as a prisoner of war he was then shipped back to the UK with other British nationals who had been caught up in the short war.

He retired to his home town and spent the next 23 years there. Illness forced him to move to Garlieston for the last two years of his life but he lived to the ripe old age of 83 and died on this day in 1920.

Some thoughts on Scottish memorial design

It never ceases to amaze me that decades after the end of the Second World War there are still war memorials being erected to that conflict. The latest to be unveiled was in the Port of Leith on Remembrance day and was closely followed by another memorial to the Merchant Navy just last week.

What makes these memorial unveilings special is the fact they are both very distinctive memorials. They could easily have been traditional designs but in both cases they have taken a standard format and given it a twist. The first to be unveiled was the Leith Academy WW2 memorial. Here the list of names follows a rational style but the way it is displayed is distinctive. The names are inscribed on a glass panel and behind that is a stylized map of the British Isles where the land is made to look like the zigzag camouflage applied to ships during the war.

It really is quite a stunning memorial and what makes it even more impressive is that most of the work was done by Leith Academy pupils. The driving force behind it was pupil Glynn Mullen who compiled the list of names; four art pupils designed it and technical pupils made it. It is a credit to them and their school.

The second memorial unveiled was the Merchant Navy memorial. I already posted about the unveiling last week but what I didn't mention was the memorial itself, and what a cracker it is. The artist responsible is Jill Watson. Her latest work takes a traditional memorial obelisk but adds so much detail it makes it unique in Scotland. Earlier commissions of hers such as the Eyemouth Fishing Disaster memorial used small figurines for effect and she has taken this a step further in her latest, and biggest, work.

Between them these two Leith memorials have raised the bar for Scottish war memorial design. Here's hoping future designers look to Leith for inspiration and come up with something new and thought provoking and not just the usual scaled up gravestones or stainless steel plaques which we have seen of late.

Unveiling of the Merchant Navy Memorial, Leith

Today a debt was partly paid. The merchant seamen of Scotland were commemorated in bronze and stone in the port of Leith.

Some might argue that this memorial deserves to be on the Clyde rather than the Forth but I’m just glad to see it erected anywhere in Scotland.

In this age of global travel and communications; of inter-continental cargo planes; of offshore flags of convenience; and a complete lack of any sort of manufacturing in this country to export, we forget we are an island and we need ships to survive.

Twice in the last century our country was nearly brought to its knees by U-boats sinking our ships. The fact we survive as a free country isn’t just down to the ‘Few’ of the Battle of Britain. It’s down to the men of the Royal Navy and the Merchant Navy who kept the lifeline firm.

In 1920 King George V decreed that the Mercantile Marine became the Merchant Navy. That wasn’t a simple change of name; it reflected the fact that during the Great War the hundreds of shipping companies of Britain formed themselves into convoys and into a navy to save the country.

In 1917 the Admiralty even admitted that they had lost the U-boat war and suggested negotiating with the Germans for an armistice on German terms. Luckily for us the British Government under Lloyd George was made of as stern stuff as the one under Churchill in 1940 and ultimately prevailed to win the war in 1918.

In the Second World War the perils were just as great, if not greater, because the threat posed by the Nazis were much worse than those of the Kaiser.

From the sinking of the SS Athenia on 3rd September 1939 to the loss of two merchantmen in the Firth of Forth on 7th May 1945 the U-boats of Admiral Donitz kept threatening our lifeline. They were the biggest threat to our survival and they fought from the first day of the war in Europe to the very last.

Not only did the Merchant Navy face the torpedoes of the Kreigsmarine and the bombs of the Luftwaffe, they also had to face the sea, a crueller a battlefield than any onshore. From the air attacks whilst replenishing Malta, to helping the Soviets by sailing through the freezing Arctic, and the constant round of long gruelling trips across the North Atlantic they made sure the allied armies, navies and air forces could continue the fight against the fascists.

Throughout all this when their ship was sunk their pay was stopped. The minute they ended up in an oil soaked lifeboat they were unpaid civilians. Once home they were treated with contempt by ignorant civilians for supposedly shirking their duties and not enlisting.

Even if they died there was still added insult. On many war memorials the men of the Merchant Navy are found at the end of the list of names as if they were any less worthy of inclusion of those who served in the armed forces.

In 2010 the British Merchant Navy is a shadow of its former self. The shipyards of the Clyde are almost all gone and so are most of the docks the ships berthed at. Even the ships we do see in British ports are likely to have been built in Asia and registered in the Caribbean.

Today’s ceremony reminds us of the debt we all owe to the brave men of the British Merchant Navy past, present and future who do a vital job few of us would relish, even in peacetime.

On this day in Scottish military history #8 – The loss of the Jervis Bay

The loss of the Auxiliary Cruiser HMS Jervis Bay is one of the most stirring stories of the Royal Navy in the Second World War. The David and Goliath struggle between the passenger liner converted for war taking on one of the Kriegsmarine’s finest pocket battleship is real ‘boys own’ stuff, and the Irishman Captain Fegen in command of the ‘Jervis Bay’ was posthumously awarded a Victoria Cross for his actions. However it was understood at the time that his award also reflected the bravery of the rest of his crew and not just his own selflessness.

Some of that crew, like eighteen men from Wick in Caithness had signed up as war time Royal Navy Reserve sailors after pre-war service in the Merchant Navy.

Captain Fegen’s V.C. citation describes the action succinctly

"For valour in challenging hopeless odds and giving his life to save the many ships it was his duty to protect. On the 5th of November, 1940, in heavy seas, Captain Fegen, in His Majesty's Armed Merchant Cruiser Jervis Bay, was escorting thirty-eight Merchantmen. Sighting a powerful German warship he at once drew clear of the Convoy, made straight for the enemy and brought his ship between the raider and her prey, so that they might scatter and escape. Crippled, in flames, unable to reply, for nearly an hour the Jervis Bay held the German's fire. So she went down; but of the Merchantmen all but four or five were saved."

What it doesn’t describe is the terrible damage the Admiral Scheer’s guns had done to the Jervis Bay and its crew. It had turned the pre-war cruise ship into an inferno with its 280mm guns as the Jervis Bay, hopelessly outclassed by the German ship, had relentlessly sailed towards the Scheer to draw its fire and save the merchant ships of convoy HX84.

Like their Captain the men of Caithness acted in the finest traditions of the Royal Navy and nine made the ultimate sacrifice. The people of Wick never forgot the Jervis Bay, or the part their men played in the battle with the Scheer and in November 2006 a plaque was unveiled in the town in their memory. The HMS Jervis Bay Memorial, Wick lists the nine local men who died to save their Merchant Navy comrades on this day seventy years ago.

James Anderson, Old Schoolhouse, Thrumster, married.
James Bain, 18 Wellington Street, wick, married, aged 27.
John M. Bain, 24 Kinnaird Street, Wick, aged 27.
David R. Bremner, 31 Smith Terrace, Wick, married, aged 29.
William Bremner, 5 Macarthur Street, Wick, aged 32.
John Innes, Burnside, Oldwick, Wick, married, age 33.
William B. Miller, 31 Smith Terrace, Wick, aged 27.
John C. Munro, New House, Keiss, aged 28.
Alexander Webster, 41 Argyle Square, Wick, married, age 32.


You can read more about the Jervis Bay here and here.

EDIT: Since posting this, I was dismayed to read a report in the John O'Groat Journal that vandals have defaced the Jervis Bay memorial plaque.

Scottish Merchant Seamen memorial in Edinburgh

From the Edinburgh Evening News:

Trust plans tribute to lost merchant seamen but details kept secret

Published Date: 31 March 2010

By MARK McLAUGHLIN

WHEN built it will be an iconic national memorial to 6,500 lost merchant seaman – but exactly what it will look like is a closely guarded secret.

The Merchant Navy Memorial Trust has applied for permission to erect "a memorial of national importance" near Tower Place, at The Shore.

All going well, the £100,000 structure will be unveiled in November. However, the Trust has called for "a degree of secrecy and confidentiality" prior to the official publication of the plans and the launch of a public appeal next month to raise the required cash. The memorial is the brainchild of Professor Gordon Milne, 74, a retired company director from Kingsknowe whose family has a long association with the merchant navy.

He said: "The memorial itself will cost £100,000, funded largely by substantial private donations from benefactors who wish to remain anonymous, but we hope to raise around a quarter-of-a-million pounds through our public appeal for various projects associated with memory of the merchant seamen.

"There are precious few memorials to these brave men in Britain. There is the Tower Hill Memorial in London which commemorates the sailors of the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets during the wars, and a memorial to the Arctic convoys recently unveiled in the Orkneys, but there is nothing to mark the loss of the 6,500 Scottish merchant seamen who died in the first and second world wars, the Falklands War and other disasters."

The drawings accompanying the plans show a plinth 4.5 metres high with a cloud obscuring the secret bronze statue at the top.

A series of bronze reliefs will also be attached to the plinth, but the nature of these are also secret.

The works are being designed by renowned Edinburgh sculptor Jill Watson who created the red lion above the door of the Queen's Gallery at Holyrood House.

She also recently completed a series of sculptures in the Borders commemorating the 125th anniversary of the 1881 Eyemouth fishing disaster.

The Trust's directors include John Menzies chairman William Thomson, heir to the company that ran Leith's famous Ben Line vessels which lost 18 ships during the Second World War alone. The directors also include Rear Admiral Roger Lockwood, chief executive of the Royal Lighthouse Board and vice-patron for Scotland of the War Memorials Trust.

The Eyemouth sculpture by Jill Watson can be seen on Adam Browns' "Scottish Monuments, Memorials and Architectural Sculpture" site - click this link for the page for the Eyemouth, Berwickshire 1881 Fishing Disaster

WW2 Gallantry Medals for the Merchant Navy

Another post I'm shamefully copying from Chris Paton's blog (I'm sure he won't mind!):

If you are researching merchant seamen who served in the Second World War then you might be interested to know that an index to Merchant Navy Gallantry awards in series T 335 is now available through The National Archives online catalogue. You can search for awards by the individual seaman or by their ship.

The records show the date the award was gazetted, the medal awarded and the rating of the person at the time as well as the ship he was serving on. However, probably of most use are the citations which give the reasons why the medal was awarded in the first place.