Ethel Aikman
Every week we’ll highlight famous Glaswegians
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ETHEL Aikman was a Glasgow woman who served during the First World War. Born in Hillhead, she became a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse. VADs were men and women who carried out a range of voluntary positions including nursing, transport duties, and the organisation of rest stations, working parties and auxiliary hospitals.
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In 1917, Ethel was travelling on board the SS Transylvania, a passenger liner of the Cunard subsidiary Anchor Line, and a sister ship to SS Tuscania. While carrying Allied troops to Egypt, the ship was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat on May 4, with a loss of 412 lives. Ten crew members, 29 army officers and 373 soldiers died. Many bodies of victims were recovered at Savona and buried two days later, in the town cemetery. Others are buried elsewhere in Italy, France, Monaco and Spain.
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Amazingly, Ethel survived, not just the sinking but also a horrendous three-hour ordeal in a badly damaged lifeboat before being rescued by nearby Japanese destroyers. She made it to the northwest coast of Italy near Savona with around 400 other survivors.
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Ethel went on to serve across Europe, and her colourful experiences are detailed in letters home and her own photographs, telling the story of an ordinary Glaswegian living through an extraordinary period in history.
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Her letters, postcards and photographs were discovered recently by Glasgow City Archives, which holds the collection at the Mitchell Library. It includes a picture taken by Ethel of soldiers and nursing staff at Stobhill Hospital during the First World War and the nurse’s medals as well as a War Office letter of commendation for her conduct during the event and a copy of her recollection of the sinking.