Current Information:

Born-Spitalfields

Enlisted-Hackney

Originally a Cunard ocean liner, the Steam Ship Ivernia was requisitioned by the Royal Navy in 1914 and used as a troop transport. On 1st January 1917 she was carrying some 2,400 British troops from Marseille to Alexandria in Egypt, when at 10:12am she was torpedoed by the German submarine UB47, 58 miles south-east of Cape Matapan  in Greece The ship went down fairly quickly with the loss of 36 crew members and 84 troops. At the time of the attack the Ivernia was carrying troops of the Argyle & Sutherland Highlanders, Royal Scots Fusiliers, Rifle Brigade and Yeomanry. HMS Rifleman rescued a number of survivors and armed trawlers towed the bulk, who had taken to lifeboats, to Suda Bay in Crete.

James Sandle, on his way to join the Machine Gun Corps in Egypt, was one of those who drowned.