In Snapshots of the Past Bryan Burdett of Southsea asked if anyone remembered the sinking of the SS City of Benares that was sunk after being torpedoed by a German U-boat in the early hours of September 19, 1940. In all, 248 of the 406 passengers and crew on board died… including 77 of the 90 children being evacuated.
JIM GLAZBROOK, of Juniper Close, Ferndown, remembers the tragedy well. He was one of the children waiting in Liverpool to board another ship that was to sail to New Zealand, a voyage that was aborted because of the sinking of the Benares. This is his story
“EARLY in 1940, the government set up the Children’s Overseas Rehabilitation Board to introduce and fund a scheme to evacuate children between the ages of five and 16 years to Commonwealth countries and the USA for families who had relatives or friends in those countries. My mother had spent the First World War in London and was adamant that she did not wish her children to experience those horrors so she contacted a friend in New Zealand and arranged for the Postmaster of Hamilton to accommodate my brother (aged nine) and me (nearly 12) for the duration. Early in September we heard that a passage had been booked and received a list of clothing that was required. Frantic trips to Poole and Bournemouth were necessary to get items at short notice, which were in short supply. Three items are clear in my memory. One was a warm Melton overcoat; another a clockwork steerable toy sports car with forward and reverse gears (made in Germany and very rare by that time of the war) especially purchased at Thomas's toy shop and studio in the High Street. The other was a family photo, again from Thomas’s. Only one suitcase was allowed and a list of our possessions had to be pasted inside the lid. So 9.30am on Wednesday, September 18, 1940, found us apprehensively waiting for Mr Reason to arrive in his Vauxhall taxi to take us down to Poole station in time for the Pines Express to take us to Liverpool. After saying farewell to our parents, we were handed over to Mr Sammy Read, our Longfleet Boys School headmaster, who was to take us to Liverpool. Mr Read selected a smoking compartment and we were treated to a smoke screen from his pipe throughout the journey. Being wartime, the train was delayed for unknown reasons but I recall waiting outside Liverpool station for some time with an air raid in progress. It was dark by the time we got into Lime Street station and obtained a taxi to take us to the school where we were to await our passage to New Zealand. Of course, there was a secrecy over ship movements so nobody knew how long we would be there. The school was a Sunshine School before the war, used mainly for children recovering from TB, which was widespread at the time. We were kept occupied during the day with lessons in the classrooms around the grounds. The classrooms had sliding glass doors on all sides, which were open most of the time to take advantage of the fresh air. There were regular day and night air raids so we spent a lot of time in the shelters under the main building where we slept in bunk beds. One of the older boys had a guitar (not common at that time) and we always had a sing-song before going to sleep (early to bed as raids started at dusk). The last song each night before settling down as best we could was always “Show Me The Way To Go Home” and it still brings back memories of those night raids. On Wednesday, September 25, we were assembled with our escorts and taken to the ship by coach. Arriving at Liverpool docks near the Royal Liver Building, we were directed to a berth where the Rangitane was tied up. On boarding, we were allocated cabins and issued with the standard-issue cork lifebelts of the time, which had to be worn over our overcoats at all times so that we were always ready to abandon ship. We sailed in the late afternoon and made our way down the Mersey into Liverpool Bay to await the assembly of the convoy. In the early evening we noticed a Naval gunboat speeding out of Liverpool and making frantic signals on the Aldis signalling lamp. Shortly afterwards we dropped anchor and then were told that all the evacuees were to be returned to Liverpool the next day. The reason was that the City of Benares, which left Liverpool on Friday, September 13, carrying 90 evacuees, had been torpedoed and sunk on her way to Canada on Tuesday, September 17. Only 13 children were picked up among the survivors, mainly by the destroyer HMS Hurricane, and when the news eventually filtered through, the Cabinet promptly cancelled the evacuation scheme. We slept on board overnight and experienced what it would have been like washing, eating and sleeping in overcoats with cork lifebelts for the six week journey to New Zealand – not pleasant. I remember being unable to sleep and venturing on deck about 5am and looking across Liverpool Bay to see the awful fires burning from the fire bomb raid that we had fortunately escaped. We landed in Liverpool in the afternoon and saw the Rangitane sail as we boarded the coaches. Due to the heavy fire bomb raid many of the roads were impassable and some were closed due to unexploded bombs or dangerous buildings. The coach driver had a terrible job to find a way for us back to the school and we eventually arrived very late at night, exhausted. After a day or so, an escort took us back on the Pines Express again and reunited us with our parents on Poole railway station. Early the next week I started belatedly at Poole Grammar School and my brother returned to Longfleet School. I was always curious to know if the Rangitane did make it to New Zealand. In the early 1950s, I saw a newspaper article. She must have made it safely to New Zealand but when returning she was intercepted by a German raider in the Pacific when all the passengers and crew were taken off before she was sunk and they were dumped on Easter Island in the Pacific. I think that they were discovered on Easter Island on Easter Monday 1941. In late 1953, my brother emigrated to New Zealand and decided to trace the Postmaster of Hamilton to whom we were due to have been evacuated but was unable to find anybody who knew of him. I often wonder what would have happened to us if we had not been recalled to Liverpool. The Rangitane did not survive the war, being sunk by enemy action in November 1940 off New Zealand.
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