CLYDEBANK MP Martin Docherty has joined calls for John Brown-built RMS Queen Mary to be given a posthumous award in recognition of her years of service during the Second World War.
If achieved, the commemoration will come as the ship, now a floating hotel in Long Beach, California, celebrates the 80th anniversary of its maiden voyage next May.
“I am writing to the Cabinet Office and the Prime Minister to highlight the upcoming anniversary and the role of the Queen Mary as one of the last great, true Clydebank-built liners. All the great liners were built at John Brown shipyard, and all the great Royal Mail ships were built at John Brown,” said the SNP MP.
“I will also be in discussions with the local authority and the Scottish Government about how we can gain practically across West Dunbartonshire, maybe some type of educational tool.
“We want to make sure the communities of West Dunbartonshire have a better appreciation of what was achieved in terms of the engineering masterpieces that were constructed and designed, and also the artistic content of these great liners.
“Within these huge skyscrapers of ships you had some of the most fantastic work of the 1930s. The Queen Mary is the epitome of that period and that was all done in Clydebank.”
Mr Docherty, whose grandfather was a riveter at John Brown and worked on the building on the Queen Mary, added: “We are extremely grateful to the United States, which has maintained the fabric of the Queen Mary.
“I welcome a posthumous award for the ship’s war service. I think it would be right and fitting that the Queen Mary be recognised.”
Between 1940 and 1946, the Grey Ghost, as the Queen Mary was known during the years of the Second World War, transported more than 750,000 military personnel around the world and was the largest and fastest troop ship. Thanks to her speed she regularly evaded U-boats and became wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s headquarters at sea, and the place where he signed the D-Day Declaration.
Officials at the ship in California are hoping to achieve international recognition from governments in the UK, as well as France and the US, the post cities the ship regularly visited.
“For more than eight decades the Queen Mary represented Scotland and Britain at their best. The ship's immeasurable wartime, commercial, social and cultural influences on the world stage continue still; more than a million and a half people still marvel at her grandeur each year,” said John Jenkins, general manager of the Queen Mary.
“We are hopeful that Great Britain and other nations will recognise the Queen Mary for her past service and future promise as we approach the 80th anniversary of her maiden voyage."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel