Anteros

I was surprised and very moved to come across this Remembrance Day article about my home town of Stornoway in The Guardian this weekend. The article briefly tells the story of the tragic loss of the HMY Iolaire, the ship that was wrecked within sight of Stornoway harbour on Hogmanay 1919, resulting in the death of 205 sailors and service men returning home from the war. (I've written about the Iolaire here before.) This is one of the very few times I have ever read about the disaster in the national press. It's only recently that the tragedy has been commemorated on the islands, when I was a child people only mentioned the Iolaire in hushed tones before turning their faces away.

The article also refers to the sheer scale of loss that the Hebrides suffered during the war, and the impact this had on island communities.

More men enlisted in Lewis, as a proportion of the population, than in any other part of the UK, Canada, Australia or New Zealand: just over 19% left to fight.

For a community built on agriculture and fishing, it was an extraordinary commitment from the young male labour on which the island’s life depended. The casualty rate was also proportionately the highest of any part of the UK and dominions. Every sixth man died, a total of 1,797.

My grandfather was one of the young Lewismen who enlisted at the age of seventeen, just a few months shy of his eighteenth birthday. He served with the Tank Corps on the Somme, but unlike so many, he was one of the lucky ones who returned to the islands.



Stornoway War Memorial

I'm sure many of you will have seen this before, but it's new to me and it's rather lovely so I'm posting it here. This clip, which is allegedly one of the first same sex kisses filmed, is from the 1927 silent film Wings starring Clara Bow, Charles Rogers, and Richard Arlen. (The music is modern.) There's a fascinating wikipedia entry about the film here. The plot is a classic love triangle and the film climaxes with the following scene:

The climax of the story comes with the epic Battle of Saint-Mihiel. David is shot down and presumed dead. However, he survives the crash landing, steals a German biplane, and heads for the Allied lines. By a tragic stroke of bad luck, Jack spots the enemy aircraft and, bent on avenging his friend, begins an attack. He is successful in downing the aircraft and lands to retrieve a souvenir of his victory. The owner of the land where David's aircraft crashed urges Jack to come to the dying man's side. He agrees and becomes distraught when he realizes what he has done. David consoles him and before he dies, forgives his comrade.

It has to be said, as final lines go, "All set" is up there with "Better already". *sniffle*

While reading Mr. Midshipman Hornblower the scenes describing the wreck of the Spanish ship on the Devil's Teeth at the end of "The Duchess and the Devil" forcibly reminded me of a naval tragedy suffered by the Western Isles in 1919. Clearly we're way off Age of Sail here, but this is a significant episode of naval history which is relatively unknown outside the islands and the circumstances are horribly similar.

( HM Yacht Iolaire )