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CHRISTINE GRAHAME MSP SPEECH - The Scottish Parliament, 15th May 2005
Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP):
I welcome the opportunity for Parliament to recognise the sacrifice made by men and women in the forces and as civilians from many countries "many with their lives" which delivered democracy to western Europe, although, regrettably, not yet world peace, as we note when we scan the international headlines and see wars around us. That sombre thought becomes even more sombre when one counts the losses in world war two. The loss of 57,000 Scots accounted for 20 per cent of all UK deaths - double our share of the population. Russia lost 29 million, 17 million of whom were non-combatants; China lost 3 million; 6 million Jews and 5.5 million Germans were lost; and Poland lost more than 6 million. However, all those figures are only estimates.
How timelessly true the following quotes are. The Greek philosopher Plato, who died in 347BC, said: "Only the dead ever see an end to war." Hiram Johnson, governor of California, said in 1910: "The first casualty when war comes is truth." Mao Tse-tung, the chairman of the Chinese communist party, who died in 1976, said:
"Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed." Perhaps the most apposite and oft-quoted line was from another European empire builder, Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of France, who died in 1821. He said: On ne fait pas d'omelette sans casser des oeufs."
Figures in the millions can mask not only the myriad individual lives lost but the
tales of those who survived, so I will tell the story of two men. One was my father's
friend, Jock Hunter from Hawick, who volunteered the day on which war was declared and joined the King's Own Scottish Borderers. Jock, whose war ended at Arnheim in the month and year of my birth, I was my father's first child and was born in September 1944,was shot down as the parachutes unfurled in the sky.
Walter Hirst, my assistant's grandfather, was a survivor of the Lancastria, which sank on 17 June 1940 with an estimated loss of life of 4,000 - the worst naval disaster in British history. This is his story: "I became an enlisted man in December 1939 before being sent to Clacton-on-Sea for basic training with the Royal Engineers. We were billeted in chalet accommodation at the Butlins Holiday camp in Clacton. The winter was bitter. We "663" had two weeks basic training with 1914 armaments before embarkation to France on or around the 26th of January 1940. Prior to leaving we were described by an officer in the Duke of Wellington's regiment as 'civilians in soldiers clothing'.
Once in France we were quickly put to work on a variety of construction jobs at an airfield just outside Nantes. Around the middle of June we were assembled and informed of the pending embarkation to England. It was a long, hot march. Eventually we reached St Nazaire around the 15th/16th of June amidst an air raid alert. That night I spent sheltering under a stairway with another member of 663 whom I was teamed with, Charles 'Chick' Napier. Myself and Chick were from the same county in Scotland, Coupar Angus.
On the 17th we boarded the Lancastria late in the afternoon. We immediately grabbed a couple of life jackets which I thought would make ideal pillows. We were ordered below and shortly after witnessed, through a porthole, the Oronsay being hit. Both myself and another Sapper decided then that it would be healthier if we were topside and so we did against orders.
Soon after the Lancastria was hit. It was a massive explosion. There was total panic
and chaos. Soldiers, including some from 663, positioned at either end of the ship began to open up with Bren guns at the circling enemy craft. I managed to get myself into a lifeboat but as it was being lowered the ropes on one end became jammed in the davit. A panicked sailor suddenly jumped up and started to hack away at the ropes with a knife. Myself and others yelled at him to stop, but immediately we were all thrown into the sea. Although I had a lifejacket on, I still had my doubts about being in the water as I was a non-swimmer. We were all saturated with oil. I kicked off from the side of the Lancastria on my back. I kept thinking, 'Got to escape the suction of the ship.'
The Lancastria continued to roll over to port. Hundreds of men were now clinging to the upturned hull. Some of those standing on the turning hull began singing 'Roll out the Barrel'. Then one tenor voice began with 'There'll always be an England'. During this time the enemy continued to strafe the men on the ship and in the water. They also began dropping incendiaries in an attempt to light the leaking oil. At some point a seemingly crazed man tried to remove my life jacket, but I manage to fight him off. Even with the jacket on I stayed as still as possible in the water hoping this would improve my buoyancy. I believe I was in the water for around two hours. At one point a large dog swam by. I briefly held onto it because it was swimming away from the ship and I thought it would take me with it. I believe it had belonged to some refugee Belgian children who had been on the boat. They did not survive.
Eventually I was picked up. We finally arrived in Plymouth the next day. We were forbidden under 'King's Regulations' to mention any word of the Lancastria." Some of the relatives of the people who did not survive did not hear anything for nearly 18 months until they received a War Office telegram that stated that their husband, father or son was lost in action in France, presumed dead aboard HMT Lancastria.
Walter Hirst, who survived what happened to the Lancastria, had his own long history; Jock Hunter was survived by my father, who is now 90 and has family, friends and his own long history. However, Jock and the millions of others who became part of that awful history had none of their own. Some people once thought that the first world war was the war to end all wars. As we remember the dead and the injured and VE day, we should always remember and regret all those who continue to die in wars and because of wars now, tomorrow and the day after, in Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan and on and on. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose'or, as the Erskine poster on the way into the chamber today says: "War isn't a thing of the past".
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