WHAT’S THE STORY?
IT was cut and stitched on a Scottish island to honour 200 American soldiers who died far from home.
Now a Stars and Stripes flag used in the funerals of US troops drowned in the 1918 sinking of the SS Tuscania is making the 3500 mile journey back to Islay as part of First World War commemorations.
TELL ME MORE
CURRENTLY held in the collections of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (NMAH) in Washington, the standard had been sent to President Woodrow Wilson by Hugh Morrison, the Laird of Islay Estate.
The package further contained a letter explaining how four local women and one man collaborated in its production to ensure the servicemen could be buried under their own flag after perishing when their vessel was torpedoed by a German U-boat.
WHAT HAPPENED?
MORE than 2000 were on board and the ship, which left from New Jersey, was near its destination of Liverpool when it went down between Islay and Northern Ireland on February 5 2018.
They had been bound for European battlefields and many of the victims washed up on Islay’s shores. They were buried on the isle but were later exhumed for reburial, with some resting in the US and others at the American Cemetery in Surrey.
The tragedy was followed by another months later when the SS Otranto sank in October, killing around 470.
WHO MADE THE FLAG?
THANKS to Morrison’s letter, we know it was Jessie McLellan, Mary Cunningham, Catherine McGregor, Mary Armour and John McDougall.
The sewing session lasted until 2am, finishing just hours ahead of the first American funeral held on the island.
The team used an encylopaedia for the design, with the women cutting and sewing the pattern to dimensions established by MacDougall, the estate joiner. MacLellan’s mother, who is not named, also helped cutting the pieces.
Morrison wrote that an American survivor carried the flag, adding: “I remember how anxious everybody in Islay was to show every possible honour to the soldiers of the United States who had come over to fight for the cause of the Allies in the Great War.”
WHY IS IT COMING BACK NOW?
THE island will host the WW100 Scotland National Day of Remembrance on Friday, with the US ambassador, Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop, Princess Anne and dignitaries from France and Germany set to attend. Members of the Islay Quilters group have recreated the flag for use at commemorative services, while the original will spend several months on display at the Museum of Islay Life in Port Charlotte before returning to Washington.
WHAT DO THE EXPERTS SAY?
RICHARD Kurin, the Smithsonian’s ambassador-at-large, said the flag “embodies an amazing story and we are proud to have been its stewards”. He went on: “We are prouder still that the flag now returns home to be exhibited on Islay where it can invoke in the current generation an appreciation of how their forebearers so respected those brothers in battle who’d washed up upon their shores, offering hospitality and healing to the survivors, and providing a last measure of honour to the fallen soldiers and crew.”
Meanwhile, Jenni Minto of the Museum of Islay Life commented: “Islay and Jura lost over 200 of their own men in WW1 and sadly those families never got the opportunity to bury their own. The sinking of the Tuscania and later the Otranto gave the islanders the opportunity to look after those men, living and dead, as they hoped their own boys would be cared for at land and sea.
“The making of the flag 100 years ago is symbolic of that and I am delighted that it is to come home to Islay as part of our commemorations.”
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