HMHS Llandovery Castle

Llandovery Castle was one of a pair of ships (her sister ship was SS Llanstephan Castle) built for the Union Castle Line, following the company's acquisition by the Royal Mail Line in 1912. The ship was built by Barclay, Curle & Co. in Glasgow, launched on 3 September 1913, and completed in January 1914.[1] Initially sailing between London and East Africa, from August 1914 she sailed on routes between London and West Africa.[2] She was commissioned as a hospital ship on 26 July 1916, and assigned to the Canadian Forces, equipped with 622 beds and a medical staff of 102.[1] Her first voyage as a Canadian hospital ship was in March 1918.

After the war, three officers from U-86, Kapitänleutnant Helmut Brümmer-Patzig, and Oberleutnants Ludwig Dithmar and John Boldt, were charged with committing a war crime on the high seas. On 21 July 1921, Dithmar and Boldt were found guilty in one of the Leipzig War Crimes Trials and were both sentenced to four years in prison. The sentences of Dithmar and Boldt were later overturned on the grounds that they were only following orders and that their commanding officer alone was responsible. Patzig, however, had fled to Danzig, then an independent city, and thus was never prosecuted as a result.[9] Outside of Germany, the trials were seen as a travesty of justice because of the small number of cases tried and the perceived leniency of the court.[10] According to American historian Alfred de Zayas, however, "generally speaking, the German population took exception to these trials, especially because the Allies were not similarly bringing their own soldiers to justice."[11] (See Victor's justice.)

• 
  SM U-86
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  Postcard of Llandovery Castle
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  Llandovery Castle by George Wilkinson
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  Anti German cartoon by Louis Raemaekers
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  A 1918 Canadian propaganda poster used the sinking of Llandovery Castle as a focal point for selling Victory Bonds

The Canadian reaction was typified by Brigadier George Tuxford, former homesteader from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and commanding officer of the 3rd Infantry Brigade, 1st Canadian Division: "Amongst those murdered were two Moose Jaw nurses, Sister Fraser and Sister Gallagher. I gave instructions to the Brigade that the battle cry on the 8th of August should be "Llandovery Castle," and that that cry should be the last to ring in the ears of the Hun as the bayonet was driven home."[12]

There is a memorial plaque to Matron Margaret Fraser and the 13 other Canadian nurses sponsored by Lady Dufferin was placed at the Nurses House of the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital in London, England.[13]

There are also memorial plaques to the ship at the Stadacona Hospital, CFB Halifax, Nova Scotia, Montreal General Hospital and the Children's Hospital in Halifax, the latter two monuments unveiled by Margaret C. MacDonald.[14]

An opera based on the sinking of the ship premiered in Toronto on the 100th anniversary of the sinking in June 2018.[15] The opera is composed by Stephanie Martin with a libretto by Paul Ciufo,[16] and according to one reviewer "breaks the story down into nine scenes set on the ship and, at the end, in the lifeboats, before the chorus steps out of time to reflect on what we have seen and heard."[17]

Nursing casualties are listed on the Halifax Memorial, Point Pleasant Park, Halifax, Nova Scotia

• Matron Margaret Marjory (Pearl) Fraser
• Carola Josephine Douglas.[18]
• Alexina Dussault.[18]
• Minnie Aenath Follette.[18]
• Margaret Jane Fortescue.[18]
• Minnie Katherine Gallaher.[18]
• Jessie Mabel McDiarmid.[18]
• Mary Agnes McKenzie.[19]
• Christina Campbell.[20]
• Rena McLean.[18]
• Mary Belle Sampson.[18]
• Gladys Irene Sare.[18]
• Anna Irene Stamers.[21]
• Jean Templeman.[21]

• Atlantic U-boat Campaign (World War I)
• Military history of Nova Scotia
• List of maritime disasters
• Military history of Canada
• List of hospital ships sunk in World War I
• History of the Royal Canadian Navy
• Military history of Canada during World War I

• Dianne Dodd. Canadian Military Nurse Deaths in the First World War. Canadian Bulletin of Medical History. Vol. 34, No. 2. 2016.
• Cynthia Toman, "Sister Soldiers of the Great War: The Nurses of the Canadian Army Medical Corps." UBC Press. 2016.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to HMHS Llandovery Castle (ship, 1914).

• Leroux, Marc (2014). "Newspapers Reaction to the sinking of the Llandovery Castle". Canadian Great War Project.
• Mullins, Claud (1921). The Leipzig Trials (excerpt). London: H.F. & G. Witherby.
• "The Llandlovery Castle Case". The American Journal of International Law. JSTOR 2187594.
• Helgason, Guðmundur. "The U-boat War in World War One". uboat.net.
• Macphail, Andrew. Official History of the Canadian Forces in the Great War 1914–1919 : The Medical Services (excerpt).

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