Lives of the First World War

This name has cropped up on a number of occasions and I decided that I needed to gather as many of the victims as I could. The Iolaire was carrying sailors who had fought in the First World War back to the Scottish island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. She left the port of Kyle of Lochalsh on the mainland late on the evening of 31 December 1918. At 2:30 a.m. on New Year's Day, as the ship approached the port of Stornoway, a few yards offshore and a mile away from the safety of Stornoway Harbour, she hit the infamous rocks "The Beasts of Holm" [Biastan Thuilm] and sank. The death toll was officially put at 205, of whom 181 men were islanders, but as the ship was badly overcrowded and there was a lack of proper records, the toll could have been slightly higher. Only 75 of the 280 (officially known) passengers survived the disaster. 73 percent of the men on the yacht perished in the incident. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMY_Iolaire The records of the men involved are very difficult to research because of the multiple men with the same names and surnames and we have based this list mainly on the CWGC records which may sometimes differ with the WW1 Naval casualties information. The most complete ROH appears to be at http://www.adb422006.com/Iolairelist.htm

Created by: , DR117137