A historic document relating to the Iolaire tragedy in 1919 has been selected for a display of ‘Twenty Treasures from Scotland’s Archives' by the Scottish Council on Archives (SCA).
Donations, monetary contributions from overseas, and proceeds of fundraising events were given to a disaster fund to help dependents of the 201 men who perished when Admiralty yacht, HMY Iolaire, sank outside Stornoway harbour.
The Iolaire Disaster Fund amassed over £29,000 within 12 months of the tragedy.
Hit by hardship and financial difficulties compounded by a general economic slump many affected families urged the fund trustees to increase payments.
In the summer of 1921 the disaster fund received a petition signed by countless families berating the trustees for keeping the orphans and widows of Iolaire victims in poverty while retaining thousands of pounds donated by wellwishers for their immediate relief.
The petition is one of twenty ‘treasures’ selected to mark the 20th anniversary of the SCA.
As well as featuring in an online exhibition, it will form part of a display at the Scottish Parliament later this week.
The letter is a rare example of a document which reflects the voices of the ordinary people affected.
In the early hours of New Year’s Day of 1919 HMY Iolaire foundered on rocks near the entrance to Stornoway harbour resulting in the loss of 201 of the 280 men on board.
The vessel had been transporting RNR servicemen home for the first New Year of peace following the end of the war.
On top of the emotional trauma, the economic impact of the loss of so many men to a community dependent on crofting and fishing was deeply felt at a time when there was no welfare state.
The fund was set up in the aftermath of the tragedy to support the families.
The wider economic problems which hit the country in the post-
The closure of various schemes by Lord Leverhulme (who had owned Lewis since 1918) made matters even more desperate.
The petition eloquently sums up the issues: the high cost of living, unemployment and the failure of the fishing industry, while the pages of signatures starkly illustrate the scale of the disaster.
The document was discovered by archivist Seonaid McDonald in 2017 in a council store amongst various Stornoway Town Council papers and may have been put aside by the fund secretary Donald Mackay (who was also the burgh chamberlain) to prevent it being destroyed.
As part of the Scottish Council on Archives’ 20th anniversary celebration, SCA invited archive services and organisations from across Scotland to nominate a special item from their collections.
From the many nominations received, a small panel chose twenty items which were of national or local significance with an interesting story to tell.
As well as the Iolaire petition, the ‘Twenty Treasures’ include an admission card for a young Jewish evacuee; a diary of a Jacobite officer who fought at Culloden; Scotland’s earliest surviving banknote; the first smallpox vaccination register from 200 ago; a brochure for the 1970 Commonwealth Games; and a short film showing Queen Victoria at Balmoral in 1896.
More details about the petition are available at www.scottisharchives.org.uk/explore/tasglann-
Historic document provides snapshot of hardship endured by families of the Iolaire disaster
21 November 2022
Iolaire petition
HMY Iolaire sank at the Beasts of Holm on the approaches to Stornoway