Whilst on holiday in South West of Scotland i managed to have a look at the churchyard of Kirkcudbright and i came across 5 graves together all from different regiments but died on the same day,so as usual you start thinking all different regiments but died on the same day WHAT HAPPENED THERE, but just as i was about to move on i noticed a marble slate lying on some pallets so went for a look and it was actually a monument to the 5 men who were washed ashore from the sinking of the MS Leinster that was sunk by a German U-Boat without warning in the Irish Sea on the 10th October 1918. Here is a good web site telling the story about the sinking . The Sinking of the R.M.S. Leinster
Today is the anniversary of the sinking of the MS Leinster. RIP all who lost their lives on that terrible day.
I missed this thread orignally Michael; I have been away a lot in September and early October. It is quite easy to forget the great loss of life in sea warfare - good post mate. RIP all who lost their lives on RMS Leinster 10/10/1918. Best, Steve.
Thanks Steve when i searched this one up i couldn't believe the amount of loss of life and so near to the end of the war.
My wife's great uncle was killed in a U-boat attack on a 'merchant man' coming back from India (UB40 would you believe - it certainly made him unemployed) off Beachy Head in May 1917. Only three bodies were found, one unknown. All three including her uncle are buried at a village nr Beachy Head. My wife and I visited his grave about 6 weeks ago and laid some flowers there - a very humbling experience. The lady who runs the flower shop enquired what they were for and we told her. Apparently, her father had recently died and she was interested in his WWII service. I thought this would have been with a Sussex Regiment, but turns out he was with the Green Howards (Yorkshire Regiment) - serving in N Africa and Italy - probably the 1st Battalion me thinks. Any way I gave her Glasgow's contact details for his service records request. A hell of day... I recently posted something about the Lancastria sinking off St Nazaire and other ship sinkings on this forum, visited my wifes uncle's grave having done the research on his ship's sinking in order to find out what happened to him and then saw your post about the Leinster. With ships sunk there is always invariably a large loss of life... Many thanks again for posting. Best, Steve.
Another of the great tragedies of war. Extraordinary really when you think of the number of troopships moving around in WW1 and WW2 that more weren't lost.
To this day, people still talk in Dublin about going to England on the "Mailboat". At one stage it was the main regular boat service between Wales and Ireland. Thanks for posting this, excellent link.
