NAM.2003-09-13-2

Portrait photograph of Sister Amy Sayers, Queen Alexandra's Military Nursing Service, 1939 (c)-1945 (c). Associated with World War Two (1939-1945). Sister Amy Sayers, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service, was travelling on troopship HMT Strathallan from Clyde, Scotland to North Africa when it was torpedoed by a German U-Boat on 12 December 1942. There were 5,132 personnel on board and Sayers was one of 248 QAIMNS nurses. The ship was hit by a spread of four torpedoes, one of which hit the engine room. The explosion killed two engineer officers and two Indian crewmen. The ship began to list and the Captain ordered the nurses and troops onto lifeboats. Most of the nurses and around 1,000 troops were transferred to the destroyer HMS Verity. Sayers and most of her colleagues survived but six crew, five soldiers and five QA nurses died - Janet McFarlane Davidson (234420), Teresa Doran (231752), Esther Hadridge (234968), Edna May Mawston (223620) and Nellie (Helen) Porterfield (246676).

World War Two (1939-1945), World War Two, War at Sea (1939-1945)