Within hours of Britain's declaration of war on September 3rd 1939,The Athenia was the first UK ship to be sunk by Germany during World War II, and the incident accounted for the Donaldson Line's greatest single loss of life at sea. 117 civilian passengers and crew were killed with the sinking condemned as a war crime. The dead included 28 US citizens, leading Germany to fear that the US might react by joining the war on the side of the UK and France. Wartime German authorities denied that one of their vessels had sunk the ship, and a German admission of responsibility did not come until 1946.
She was the second Donaldson ship of that name to be torpedoed and sunk off Inishtrahull by a German submarine; the earlier Athenia was similarly attacked in 1918. ( Wikipedia)
One year later a Huthwaite woman, Annie Bailey, was lost as the SS Benares was torpedoed while taking evacuees to Canada. Countryfile covered the story last night of a young girl lost on that occasion.
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Please comment if you have information to add to the history of Blackwell residents during these years.