70th anniversary of the SS Lancastria shipwreck in front of Saint-Nazaire

June 17th, 2010. Breton, British, Irish and citizens of the Commonwealth had gathered to honor the memory of thousands of victims of the steamer Lancastria, shot at and sunk by the Luftwaffe.

The emotion was very strong during the reading of testimonies of survivors of the greatest British maritime catastrophe. On the initiative of the CREDIB, a group of residents of Saint-Nazaire came to testify their solidarity with the families of the victims, while raising the Breton and interceltic flags. The British and Irish here, cordially thanked their Breton friends for this simple and discrete attention.

The assistance could attend a very moving exchange between Gwenola Hemery (from the CREDIB) and the daughter of a victims, Fiona Symon (photo). The president of the Scottish association was 10 months old when her father died on the Cunard steamer. In front of the press she said that it was the first time that she came to Brittany and mentionned the interceltic links: « I am happy to walk today where he had walked ». As Philip Stonor, the representative of the British authorities said: « The victims have become the symbol of our duty to remember ». In his intervention he made a stong point of paying homage to the acts of bravery of the British present on theship and of many residents of Saint-Nazaire who launched their boats to go and save the survivors: « Your presence today is important because you represent the spirit of the deceased ».

The assistance was also very moved by the story of this young Irishman, Thomas Maguire, who had come from the county Fermanagh to fight for Freedom. His nephew, Eugene Maguire (photo) , managed with much difficulty to contain his emotion at the evocation of the tragic end of his uncle, 20 years of age. The family of this Honest Irishman did not discover before 2007 that he was on the Lancastria. He rests on Breton ground in the British military cemetery of Pornic.

At the end of the ceremony, the British officials – starting with the representative of the Embassy of Great Britain, Philip Stonor – came to greet the carriers of Gwenn ha Du and other interceltic flags, as well as British veterans like Fred Coe (photo). This British warmth contrasted with the attitude of the local officials. The sub-prefect nevertheless went back towards the Breton color-bearers to greet them and announced that they were “civil flags”. He received as a retort that it was the flag of the Breton nation! The deputy of Saint-Nazaire, Marie Odile Bouillé, also greeted the participants, with much courtesy. During the friendship glass later in the Town Hall, the first magistrate, J.-G. Batteux, ulcerated by this Breton presence, intervened less than diplomatically in front of the representative of the Embassy of Great Britain by disapproving « the presence of Breton flags ».

To this reaction, quite far away from the tradition of hospitality and opening of the Nazairians, we prefer this sentence, written 61 years ago: « The call of the dead of the “Lancastria” resting in this Breton ground corner, become ground of Great Britain... » published in La Résistance of Ouest on June 20th, 1949 – the daily newspaper created by the Nantes Resistance in 1945 (which became Press Océan in 1960).

Hubert Chémereau, translation Maryvonne Cadiou

From (voir le site) of Credib Saint-Nazaire June 19th 2010 and (voir notre article)

(voir le site) of Lancastria Association Scotland, page of photos of the pilgrimage on the site of the wreck, attended, in the afternoon, by survivors and families of the deceased.