Remember the Iolaire

[Blue_mischief]

On this centenary, spare a thought for the Iolaire and her passengers and crew.

When I Heard the Bell: The Loss of the Iolaire By John MacLeod

 

[Uricanejack]

100 years ago tonight.

Anyone with connections to Lewis. Will be remembering the Iolaire.

 

[zoidberg]

or in the gaelic

 

[NorthUp]

Stornoway lifeboat has just returned from the wreck site, 100 years to the hour since the Iolaire struck the Beasts of Holm, with the loss of 205 men returning from war.

 

[Quandary]

Anyone interested in this forgotten bit of history can tune in to BBC Alba, running on the event all day. The message is that despite the heroism of those that survived, the islanders turned in on their grief and kept it to themselves for almost a century. The cruelty of such loss as the men who survived the war returned with hope can not be imagined.That the promises made were never kept is even worse.

 

[dunedin]

Sobering story. RIP to those who lost their lives.
As has been described, a crowning misery / loss after the already too great horrors of the war.

 

[jordanbasset]

Listened to quite a long segment on BBC Radio 4 news at lunchtime about it, had not heard of the sinking before today, a tragic and moving event even all these years later

 

[Quandary]

They showed a lot of photos and paintings of victims, survivors and relatives yesterday. It struck me that Lewis folk reputation as dour springs from this time, pictures of the wives and their men in uniform showed proud happy faces, years after the tragedy the women were enveloped in shapeless blackclothes with an expression of real misery. So many families were affected that no one ever spoke about the Iolaire tragedy because they were almost certain to cause grief. The highest proportion to serve, 1 in every 6 of the population and the highest proportion of loss.

 

[alant]

Anyone interested in this forgotten bit of history can tune in to BBC Alba, running on the event all day. The message is that despite the heroism of those that survived, the islanders turned in on their grief and kept it to themselves for almost a century. The cruelty of such loss as the men who survived the war returned with hope can not be imagined.That the promises made were never kept is even worse.

The Government also kept it secret IIRC.

 

[Frogmogman]

A particularly tragic and cruel disaster, coming just after the end of hostilities when all those families were expecting to get their menfolk home.

R.I.P.

 

[Uricanejack]

No. It was talked about.

Which doesn’t mean I listened as well as I should have.
It’s a sad story. From a time with a lot of sad stories.

My wife’s dad talked about it. He told me of the relatives lost and those who survived. Aunts who never married or remarried. I regret not having paid sufficient attention at the time to be able to remember all of what he told me. I have told my own kids, they don’t appear to have paid any more attention than I did when I was there age. It’s even more distant to them.

There were a lot of sad stories throughout the Uk and further afield from this time. Aunts who never remarried or never married. Young men who are vaguely remember as a long lost uncle of a grandparent.

The war was over and they were lost in sight home. Loss from war is always sad. It’s a Lewis story. It’s very much part of history of Lewis. There are many other stories of loss particularly to many places from this time. All are to easily forgotten.
The world is still at it writing new stories.

 

[jordanbasset]

I suspect the reason the story is not so well known is that it occurred just after the end of the war and in the same time period as the Spanish flu pandemic (which in itself is believed to have killed 20-50 million world wide)
Amid such carnage it is not really surprising I suppose that minds were concentrated elsewhere

 

[Motor_Sailor]

The Government also kept it secret IIRC.

Apart from it being front page news and being followed by a public enquiry with a local jury.

But as has been said, it was a terrible disaster and all the more so, coming after the end of hostilities, but must be seen against the fact the country as a whole was numb with loss from 4 years of war and were also reeling from the onslaught of 'Spanish' flu. It was horrendous, but the rest of the country was also coming to terms with their own losses and issues. My family was left in limbo as Granddad had left for Russia in late 1916 to support the 'Whites' and hadn't been heard of since. His 'loss' consumed my Grandmother as a newly wed, until he returned unannounced years later in 1923. She was that 'interested' in the happenings at the other end of the street let alone country during that time. So many others must have become lost in their own grief.

There was also a real conflict in the country about whether everyone should be in mourning or could those who survived be encouraged to celebrate the victory and their gift of life. There's an interesting exhibition in the IWM (North) about the debates in the country in the immediate post war years between remembrance and celebration, and the nature they should take. Interestingly the Iolaire was overloaded because the War Department had laid on extra trains to the Kyle of Lochalsh in an effort to get the men back to Stornaway so they could celebrate Hogmanay.

 

[NorthUp]

An Admiralty Inquiry ( not a Court Martial as expected) was started a week after the tragedy, but many of the survivors ( all professional seamen) were not called. The results of that Inquiry were not released for 50 years.
A Public Inquiry was held later after public protest, but again many witnesses , most notably the Commander of the Stornoway Naval base were not called.
Both were considered a whitewash for the Admiralty and the establishment.