Clyde memorial to Lancastria disaster dead

A MEMORIAL has been unveiled to the thousands of people who died in the UK’s worst maritime disaster.

The sinking of the Lancastria off the coast of France on 17 June 1940 is estimated to have killed about 4,000 people, although some have put the number as high as 9,000.

The liner was attacked by a German bomber, receiving three direct hits and sinking in less than 20 minutes.

The tragedy is also described as the worst single loss of life for British forces during the Second World War.

Seventy-one years on, a bronze sculpture was placed on the banks of the River Clyde in Glasgow yesterday at the site of what was the William Beardmore and Sons shipbuilding yard, where the ship was constructed.

The memorial is set on a granite block with a commemorative text, and was created by Fife artist Marion Smith. The bronze represents the early steel sheet construction of the Lancastria.

Jacqueline Tanner, 74, from Malvern, Worcestershire, who is the youngest known survivor of the disaster, was at the unveiling. She was just two when the ship sank, and her parents are said to have held her up out of the water for more than two hours before they were rescued.

Tanner, formerly Jacqueline Tillyer, had to be revived and still has the sailor’s jersey she was wrapped in by her rescuer. She said: “The memorial is a place where we can all come to remember. It’s a long way for me, and I’d like something in England too, but this is what we needed. It’s part of our history.”

Winston Churchill banned all news coverage of the disaster at the time, fearing that the scale of the tragedy would impact on public morale. That decision is said to be the reason why it has taken so long to have a memorial put in place.

Campaigners have also long argued for official recognition of the wreck as a war grave.

An HMT Lancastria Commemorative Medal was commissioned by the Scottish Government and given to survivors at a ceremony at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh three years ago.