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THE PERTHSHIRE grandson of a survivor of Britain's worst ever naval disaster has accused the Ministry of Defence of "preferring to forget" the tragedy's 4000-plus victims.
Mark Hirst, of Abernethy, will be among those funding a pilgrimage to France to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the sinking of the troop ship Lancastria.
The massive ship went down while evacuating British troops from France in June 1940.
However, Mr Hirst yesterday insisted the MoD is "continuing to try to cover up" the disaster.
Last night, when contacted by The Courier, an MoD spokesman hotly disputed the accusation but confirmed the organisation would not be officially recognising the anniversary.
More than 4000 lives, the majority British, were lost when the Lancastria was sunk and the French government has confirmed it will send a naval vessel and marines to mark the ceremony.
However, Mr Hirst claims repeated attempts to contact the MoD have been met only with silence.
"Winston Churchill decided to ban all news coverage of this disaster on June 17, 1940, by issuing a D-notice," the 35-year-old said.
"As far as officials and ministers in London are concerned that ban effectively remains in place today and few people have even heard of the Lancastria.
"I am travelling to St Nazaire in France next week to mark the 65th anniversary of the sinking," Mr Hirst continued.
"It will be the last officially organised trip with survivors from the Lancastria Association.
"I have repeatedly tried to contact the MoD to inquire about what arrangements they have made to mark the anniversary. They have completely ignored me.
"By contrast the French authorities have said they will send a French naval vessel and a detachment of marines to formally commemorate a tragedy which claimed more lives than the Titanic and Lusitania disasters combined."
Mr Hirst's father John, a former bugler in the Royal Marines, will play the Last Post over the wreck site on Friday to mark the final pilgrimage for survivors and to salute and remember the victims.
"I had hoped that the defence secretary would, as a means of formally recognising the disaster, designate the wreck site an official war grave," Mr Hirst jnr said.
"Regrettably, it does not look like he will do that.
"Ever since Churchill learned of this disaster there has been an active attempt to purge it from the history books in the UK and perhaps the fact that few people have heard of this sinking-the worst in British history -demonstrates how successful this has been.
"What has angered me, however, is that this official silence by the British government continues to this day."
Mr Hirst believes next week's commemoration is a highly important event and hopes as many people as possible are aware of it.
Mark's grandfather Walter, who survived the Lancastria disaster, was a member of 663 Company, Royal Engineers.
Built on the Clyde in 1922, the ship was attacked by specialist anti- shipping German bombers.
The packed vessel may have had up to 9000 people on board at the time. An estimated 4000 died including French and Belgian refugees, but mainly troops from the British Expeditionary Force (BEF).
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence denied that the organisation had even been invited to next week's commemoration but admitted it was unlikely they would have recognised it.
"We would probably not get involved as the Lancastria was actually an evacuation ship and not a navy ship," he explained.
"I believe there is a pilgrimage to the site but we have never been asked to be involved in this-we cannot just go along uninvited.
"The other point to make is that this is a 65th anniversary and we normally honour three anniversaries, namely the 25th, 50th and 60th."
The spokesman denied there was any whiff of a cover-up.
"We are certainly not snubbing the event, the disaster certainly did happen as a matter of fact and we are not trying to deny it," he said.
"Had we been invited we would have taken a decision but that is a hypothetical question."
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