The ship was built by John Brown on Clydebank. She was one of an order for three ships, the others beingVienna andPrague. She was launched on 30 January 1930.
On 14 October 1932, she broughtPrince George, Duke of Kent back from his tour of Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands.[2]
She was converted to ahospital ship and departed for Normandy on 19 July 1944 to pick up her first casualties.[3] On 7 August, on her third trip, she was sunk by amine while returning with wounded fromJuno Beach,Calvados, France.[6][7] A total of 55 patients, tenRoyal Army Medical Corps staff, 30 crew and elevenprisoners of war were killed.[3][8][9] Two nurses, Matron Dorothy Anyta Field, 32,[10] and Sister Mollie Evershed, 27,[11] are credited with helping save 75 lives, going below deck again and again to help others get to the lifeboats; they themselves went down with the ship.[12][13] One survivor reported seeing two people stuck in portholes as the ship sank; he stated he "was told afterwards that they were nurses."[14] According to one news report, a member of the Royal Army Medical Corps said he tried unsuccessfully "to rescue a nursing officer through the porthole in the lower deck in which she'd been trapped".[3] The two nurses are the only women whose names are on theBritish Normandy Memorial, with 22,442 men.[12]Lily McNicholas (1909–1998), an Irish nurse, survived the sinking and was awarded anMBE for her heroism.
United Kingdom
