SS Mendi

Rob Wilson Excerpts

Tuesday 21st February 2017 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Mr Rob Wilson)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for South West Wiltshire (Dr Murrison) on securing today’s debate today on the centenary of the sinking of the SS Mendi. I should also like to commend him for the substantial role he has played in ensuring the success of the Government’s first world war centenary programme so far. The centenary programme provides an opportunity for us all to come together to honour the sacrifices made 100 years ago, and I am delighted to have taken over ministerial responsibilities for the programme.

I look forward to the national commemorative events planned to mark the centenary of Passchendaele—the third battle of Ypres—in Belgium this July, as well as the centenary of the Armistice in 2018. I am also grateful for the contributions that other hon. Members have made tonight, which have highlighted how important this subject is to the House. Every Member’s constituency contains many families who have lost loved ones in that war.

As my hon. Friend said, the sinking of SS Mendi was one of the worst maritime disasters in British waters, but it was also among the darkest moments of South Africa’s war. More than 600 men lost their lives, a figure second only to the number of casualties suffered by the 1st South African Infantry Brigade at Delville Wood during the battle of the Somme in 1916. The Mendi was carrying members of the South African Native Labour Corps, bound for the western front. The centenary gives us an opportunity to honour those who lost their lives that day, and to recognise the significant contribution of the various labour corps to the wider war effort.

Numbering more than 20,000 men, the South African Native Labour Corps was one of the most significant of the groups that served. The labour corps were drawn from the UK and from around the world: from South Africa, Egypt, India, Canada, China and elsewhere. At the beginning of the war, tasks such as moving stores, repairing roads and building defences were carried out by soldiers who had withdrawn from the frontlines for rest, but by early 1917, the need for labour on the western front had become critical as a result of the unprecedented scale of casualties suffered: I think my hon. Friend said that there were about 6,000 a day during the war. That was the catalyst for the creation of the labour corps. Maintaining the vast military infrastructure of camps, transport routes, stores and supply dumps and communications networks was a mammoth undertaking. Without the efforts of the labour corps, the Army and other fighting forces simply could not have functioned.

It is right for the events of 100 years ago not to be forgotten. I am pleased that the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth East (Mr Ellwood) —who has ministerial responsibility for Africa—was able to represent Her Majesty’s Government at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Hollybrook cemetery in Southampton yesterday. In the presence of Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal, those brave men were honoured with the respect and recognition that they fully deserve on the 100th anniversary of their deaths. I agree with my hon. Friend that it is important for us not to forget the discrimination faced by many who served in the labour corps. This anniversary is an opportunity for us to recognise our nation’s past, and to strengthen our ties with the nations that supported us and fought beside us. The Government are commemorating the centenary, as well as the wider role of the labour corps, in a number of ways.

The CWGC cares for the graves and memorials of the 1,300 members of the South African Native Labour Corps who lost their lives in the first world war. We know that the majority of those who died aboard the Mendi were never found, but nearly 600 are commemorated by name on the Hollybrook memorial in Southampton. As is the case with all the Commission’s cemeteries and memorials, every one of those named at Hollybrook is commemorated in the same way. In life they had very different experiences, but in death they are honoured with equal respect. The remains of 19 who died aboard the Mendi were recovered, and buried in cemeteries and local churchyards. Today their graves can be found along the coastlines on either side of the English channel. There are graves at Milton cemetery in Portsmouth—where a commemorative event took place on Friday—and also in France and the Netherlands.

As my hon. Friend mentioned, the Government are funding a community engagement project called “The Unremembered: World War One’s Army of Workers” to recognise the contribution of the tens of thousands of labourers who served in the first world war. I urge schools and communities throughout the country to take part in that important project, which will focus on the role of labour corps including the South African Native and Chinese Labour Corps, and will provide educational resources to enable schools and communities to learn more about them. Its aim is to further understanding of the impact of the first world war, to achieve positive community impact, and to raise awareness of local heritage sites, particularly the labour corps war graves and memorials that can be found in the UK. I would also like to remind organisations that the Heritage Lottery Fund has funding available to explore, conserve and share local first world war heritage. Thousands of young people and communities throughout the UK have already been involved in activities marking the centenary, and I encourage local communities to apply to this fund.

The centenary programme aims to commemorate all who served in the first world war and were impacted by it, and to provide opportunities for the public to rediscover our shared history. I therefore conclude today by paying tribute to all who lost their lives in 1917 at the sinking of the SS Mendi and all who were affected by it. Together, we will ensure that they have not been forgotten.

Question put and agreed to.