Lancastria sinking remembered in Clydebank

The thousands of people who lost their lives when the RMS Lancastria was sunk in Britain's worst maritime disaster during World War Two, have been remembered at a special ceremony in Dumbarton, near the spot where the vessel was built and launched.

Dunbartonshire's Vice Lieutenant, Linda Moffat RD DL, attended a Service of Remembrance and laid a wreath at the memorial to the event at the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank.

The Lancastria was built in 1921 at the Beardmore Shipyard, now the site of the hospital, and named the RMS Tyrhennia. 

She was built as a cruise liner but in 1940 she was requisitioned by the government and sent to France to evacuate Allied personnel in the face of the advancing German Army.

She was sunk by German bombers on June 17th, off St Nazaire.

The vessel was designed to carry 2,200 passengers but because of the mission she was on, it's thought she may have been carrying more than three times that number.

The exact number of fatalities is not known but the sinking is regarded as the biggest loss of life in British maritime history.