US flag made on Islay heads home
A STARS and Stripes flag – produced overnight on the island of Islay so that American soldiers who died after the sinking of the SS Tuscania could be buried with honour under their own flag – is making the 3,500-mile journey back to Islay 100 years on.
The flag will arrive ahead of the WW100 Scotland National Day of Remembrance on Islay tomorrow (Friday May 4) which will be attended by local people, descendants and dignitaries, including the Princess Royal.
Carrying more than 2,000 US Army personnel, SS Tuscania was on its way from New Jersey to Liverpool when it was torpedoed by German submarine UB-77, sinking off Islay on February 5, 1918. More than 210 British crew and American soldiers on board the Tuscania perished, many washing up on Islay.
The flag was sent to President Woodrow Wilson and is now in the collections of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington DC. It was made by four women and one man – Jessie McLellan, Mary Cunningham, Catherine McGregor, Mary Armour and John McDougall – who worked through the night at Islay House, completing it around 2am just ahead of the first American funeral on Islay.
Jenni Minto, from the Museum of Islay Life, said: ‘Islay and Jura lost more than 200 of their own men in the First World War and sadly those families never got the opportunity to bury their own. The sinking of the Tuscania and later the Otranto gave islanders the opportunity to look after those men, living and dead, as they hoped their own boys would be cared for at land and sea.
‘The making of the flag 100 years ago is symbolic of that and I am delighted it is coming home to Islay as part of our commemorations.’
A hundred years on, ladies of Islay Quilters have recreated the flag, working at Islay House. The new replica flag will be used in the commemorative services, while the original flag will be displayed in the Museum of Islay Life in Port Charlotte for the coming months before returning to the USA.
Marian Senior, one of the Islay Quilters who made the replica flag, said: ‘As we sewed, we reflected on what it must have been like on the island 100 years ago. It will be a real privilege to see the original flag and to have our replica used in the commemorations.’
The commemorative service tomorrow will remember the more than 200 Islay men who died during the First World War and the 700 US servicemen and British crew members who lost their lives in the sinkings of SS Tuscania and HMS Otranto (October 6 1918).
The Otranto sank near Machir Bay, on the west coast of the island, after a collision with HMS Kashmir.