Time to name a train after D-Day heroines who sacrificed their lives to save 75 injured servicemen
Train operator Great Western has hit the news this week, with the naming of one of its trains “Shania Train” as a tribute to the singer Shania Twain, who is staring at Glastonbury . A move that generated a lot of happiness to fans travelling to the festival by GW trains and quite a contrast to Great Western’s long history of naming its trains after those who fought in both world wars.
Earlier this month the country came together to pay its respects to those who 80 years ago gave their lives on the beaches of Normandy. Next month will mark the 80th anniversary of the death of two British nurses who rejected the opportunity to save themselves, instead going below decks on a sinking hospital ship to rescue 75 injured servicemen, before being trapped and drowning as the ship went down. What more of a fitting tribute to these two heroines, then to have a train named after them – carrying their name across the network from Penzance to Hereford – including the navel city of Plymouth.
The British Normandy Memorial contains the names of the 22,442 servicemen and women under British command who fell on D-Day and during the Battle of Normandy in the summer of 1944. Only two belong to women. These brave women are nurses Sister Mollie Evershed and Sister Dorothy Anyta Field, who was known as Anyta to her family.
Hospital ship SS Amsterdam, on which the two women were serving, hit a mine near Juno Beach on 7 August 1944. Forsaking their own safety, the two women made repeated trips below deck to rescue as many wounded servicemen as they could. After bringing 75 men up on deck and to the lifeboats, the two nurses returned below decks to attempt to rescue more men, but the ship sank before they could make it back on deck – taking the two women with it. In total 55 wounded men were lost, 10 medical staff and 30 crew, along with 11 German prisoners of war.
Ship's survivor Patrick Manning, who worked in the galley, said "There was a heavy swell, so, finding it hard to swim in a lifejacket, I paddled". Mr Manning continued by saying "I could hear a lot of screaming and shouting. I looked around and could see some of the wounded soldiers jumping over the side and there were two people stuck in portholes. I was told afterwards that they were nurses." Mollie died a week before she was to turn 28. She was about to be married.
Sister Mollie came from Soham, Cambridgeshire, and Sister Dorothy from Ringwood, Hampshire.
Pictures of Great Western HST “Harry Patch The last survivor of the trenches” https://www.flickr.com/photos/190687851@N02/53799765870/ and https://www.flickr.com/photos/190687851@N02/53798405027/
Drawing on internal 'secret' reports and candid staff interviews, the ' A Funny Thing Happened on the Train' series of books are a funny, fearless and sometimes shocking narrative of rail travel in the UK. They also cover the history (in a lively way!) of the stations and lines featured, along with approximately 200 colour photographs in every book. The first two best selling books in the trilogy are https://www.chimewhistle.co.uk/shop/p/a-funny-thing-happened-on-the-train-to-london and https://www.chimewhistle.co.uk/shop/p/afunnythinghappenedonthetraintothemidlands Both now down to very limited stock.