Relatives win backing in fight for war grave status
Relatives of victims of one of Britain's worst maritime disasters received backing yesterday from the War Graves Commission in their campaign to have the site recognised as an official war grave.
The Clyde-built Lancastria was carrying about 9,000 troops when she was sunk by German bombers while taking part in a mass evacuation off the coast of France in 1940, two weeks after Dunkirk.
About 4,000 people died, making it the worst single maritime disaster in British history, with a death toll twice that of the Titanic.
The wreck lies in about 60ft of water, five miles from the town of St Nazaire in north-west France.
Campaigners want the wreck protected from divers.
At present, the Ministry of Defence considers it to be a maritime grave.
Yesterday, it emerged that the Commissioner for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Alan Meale MP, had written to the veterans minister, urging him to designate Lancastria an official war grave.
Responding on behalf of the Lancastria Association of Scotland, Mark Hirst, whose grandfather Walter Hirst was among the survivors, said it was a "significant development".
