The Unsinkable Mary Lehane

Somewhere on the ocean floor off Algeria in the Mediterranean Sea lies a once-graceful passenger liner that served as a troopship to Allied soldiers during World War II.

She met her doom on a moonlit night on December 21, 1942, torpedoed by a German U-boat.

On board the RMS Strathallan were more than 4,000 British and American troops, 872 crew and 250 members of the Queen Alexandra Imperial Military Nursing Service.

One of them was Mary Lehane, a nurse from Kilmurry in Co Cork.

“I’ve seen and heard some strange things at sea, but the cries of those girls and the sight of them hanging to the raft as we bore down on them at 23 knots made my heart come into my mouth,” remarked a Royal Navy sailor who was part of the rescue mission.

One of those ‘girls’ was Mary, a born survivor who had already witnessed the First World War, the War of Independence and the Civil War. She died last month in her 100th year, the last of eight siblings.

Among the other survivors of the sinking was Margaret Bourke White, the celebrated American war photographer and correspondent, and Molly Skynn, who was in the same lifeboat as Mary. Molly and Mary prayed together through the night and they became lifelong friends.

“Mary’s survival speaks volumes for her physical constitution, her positive mental outlook and especially her strong Christian faith,” says her niece Antonia Lehane, a doctor from Swords, Co Dublin.

“The lifeboat sank and all those on board, including Mary, were in the water, depending on their lifejackets for survival in the cold sea, made worse by the fuel oil spill from the stricken ship.”

For a long time after the war, none of Mary’s family members knew of her remarkable escape from the wreckage of the Strathallan nor did she talk much about her war-time experiences.

Antonia still remembers the first time she heard of her aunt’s near brush with death. “I was only eight or nine when some older and all-knowing cousin announced that Auntie Mary was blown up. I did not believe this story. How could she be “blown up” and be all there now? The cousin lost all credibility in my eyes, but, as I later found out, the story was true!”

As Antonia grew up in Tipperary and later in Dublin, her memories of her aunt were limited, confined to the annual trip to Cork to see her grandmother, which usually coincided with Mary’s visit home.

“I remember Mary more like the mature woman in a 1960 photograph, with her beautiful porcelain clear complexion. I also remember the maroon Mini she drove which was the height of ‘cool’ at that time.”

Mary enlisted in the Queen Alexandra’s Nursing Service in 1942 at a time when Britain had suffered many defeats. In November of that year, the British defeated the Germans at El Alamein in Egypt but had many casualties.

February 1943; A group of British Nurses of Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Reserve Service aboard rescued destroyer.

“Reinforcements and field hospitals were badly needed,” Antonia explains. “In this context, Mary’s unit, 69 Field Hospital, was trained and despatched to Scotland for transport to North Africa.

“Strathallan was a luxury liner launched in 1937 and built for the England to Australia route. Converted to a troop carrier, she departed from Scotland on 11th December 1942, with over 5,000 people, including Aunt Mary, on board, part of a large convoy.”

In 1943, the Allies pursued the Germans into Italy and the medical services with field hospitals followed. Mary served in a field hospital at Monte Cassino in 1944, where some of the fiercest fighting in Western Europe took place, with casualties estimated at over 180,000. “Mary rarely spoke of her experience, only to say it was awful and she described the lines of injured and dying as stretching as far as the eye could see. Essential equipment was in short supply and conditions for all were dreadful.”

Antonia has written a moving tribute to her aunt in the form of a booklet to celebrate the life of a remarkable woman.

“I have been gathering family history for a long time,” says Antonia.

“I do not have children myself but Aunt Mary had great-grandnephews and nieces and I wanted to give them something to treasure.”

Antonia’s wider family has a long history of involvement in the medical profession. Her cousin Richard Curran was in the Royal Medical Corps while another cousin, haematologist Dermot Lehane, was awarded a CBE in 1977 for his work as medical director of the Regional Transfusion Centre in Liverpool.

Mary Lehane’s uncle, Richard Powell Aherne, served as a medical officer in the Boer War.

A memorial Mass will be held at Kilmurry parish church at noon today, celebrated by Fr Tim Lehane, a cousin of Mary Lehane.