A GROUP of Scottish sailors who have lain in an unmarked grave for more than a century are to be honoured with a service on the anniversary of the tragedy which took their lives.
Moves are also under way to create a permanent memorial to the crewmates, who drowned off the coast of Brightlingsea, Essex, in 1903.
The men, who were from Leith, worked in the engine room of the steam yacht Lorena, then one of the most advanced ships in the world.
They drowned when a boat ferrying coal back to the ship capsized and sank around 100 metres from its destination. It appears none of the men could swim and were quickly lost despite an immediate rescue effort.
Their bodies were washed ashore in the days after the tragedy and buried in a mass grave. But despite the men's identities being known, no headstone was put up as their families were either unable to be contacted for permission or to provide funds for a memorial.
The victims were John Currie 47, James Douglas 46, Alexander Smith 36, John McLean-Johnson 26, John Boyd McGregor 24, brothers Andrew, 31, and David Wilson, 26, and Frederick Richard McLaren 25.
Local historian Roger Tabor is hoping to contact descendants of the families to secure their support for a memorial, although funds are not an issue.
He said: "We are a maritime community and this tragedy was very keenly felt at the time, although it has been largely forgotten now.
"It is only fitting that these men's grave is marked with a permanent reminder of their lives. We would really like to speak to their descendents and get them involved."
The memorial service, led by Rev Anne Howson, will take place at the unmarked grave at All Saints Church, Brightlingsea, at 2pm on Thursday. Anyone with information on the men's descendants is urged to contact the church by email to revhowson@gmail.com.
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 hereComments are closed on this article