Hartland Royal British Legion honours victims of WWI hospital ship attack

Service held on cliffs overlooking Bristol Channel to remember HMHS Glenart Castle tragedy

Reporter:

David FitzGerald

26 Feb 2025 7:30 AM

The Royal British Legion's Hartland branch will stage a special remembrance service today, Wednesday, February 26, on the nearby cliffs overlooking the Bristol Channel.

They will gather to mark the attack in World War One on a hospital ship, HMHS Glenart Castle.

On February 25, 1918, she had left Newport in Wales bound for Brest in France to pick up wounded Portuguese soldiers. Clearly marked as a hospital ship, illuminated and displaying the red cross, she was torpedoed at 3.50am on February 26, with a massive loss of life.

This was a war crime, a war crime that went unprosecuted but importantly, is not forgotten.

Witnesses at the time, which included local fishermen, gave statements that it was clearly marked with the red cross… lit and showing navigation lights. But she joined a list of vessels that were destroyed despite their humanitarian cause.

On Tuesday, February 25, representatives from the military medical services were joined by 30 members of The Royal Centre for Defence Medicine to tidy the cliff top plaque as well as give the town war memorial a spring clean.

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