No.1 Lifeboat (54)

(Chief Officer Sidney E.D. Britt)

Chief Officer Britt

At the same time as the rescue of some of the other boats things were getting desperate in No.1 boat. Chief Officer Sidney Britt collapsed that night and by the fifteenth morning he was among the dead, by the same evening Capt. Thomas McCall, a Master Mariner, who shared the navigation with Britt, was also dead leaving no one with any navigational qualifications left. Reduced in numbers by half, the survivors needed a new leader and Quartermaster Angus MacDonald took over. MacDonald was experienced in small boats and was assisted by Third Steward Jack Edmead and passenger Diana Jarman. As the days passed more of the occupants died.

Wtr Jack Edmead

On 12th December, 1942 after 36 days at sea, 51 of their number had died, and only three were left alive, they were picked up by the German blockade runner RHAKOTIS. Kapitän zur See Jacobs told them they had come a long way past St Helena, five hundred miles to the northwest. The survivors were Quartermaster Angus MacDonald, Third Steward Jack Edmead and passenger Diana Jarman. Their elation at survival was short-lived with the death onboard the RHAKOTIS of Diana Jarman who had bravely shared their ordeal.

There was more to come, however, as the RHAKOTIS was due to rendezvous with U-boats around 27th December 1942. British Intelligence was also trying to find her, and on New Years Day 1943 the Rhakotis was attacked by the British Cruiser HMS SCYLLA. MacDonald and Edmead managed to get to different lifeboats before the RHAKOTIS sunk. HMS SCYLLA, fearing the U-boats, never stopped to pick up survivors.

The next day 2nd January, MacDonald was picked up by U-410 and survived a depth charging attack by British bombers. He was eventually landed and spent the rest of the war in Marlag and Milag Nord prisoner of war camp at Westertimke. Jack Edmead's lifeboat, in the charge of the RHAKOTIS' chief officer, landed in Corunna, Spain on 3rd January 1943.

Angus MacDonald and Jack Edmead were both awarded the BEM(Civ). Sidney Britt was commended for brave conduct.

Diana Jarman

Courtesy of Denis Ironside Guardsman Frank Ironside and Quartermaster Robert Ironside

QM Angus MacDonald

The photo above (middle) shows Quartermaster Robert Ironside and his brother Frank, a Scots Guardsman. Robert died on 19th November 1942 in No.1 Lifeboat.

When the Guards Armoured Divison overran Milag Nord Prisoner of War camp in May 1945, Bob Ironside's brother, Frank Ironside, was one of the men who cut through the wire. Hearing that one of the survivors was from the CITY OF CAIRO he sought the man out. Angus MacDonald still had his Quartermaster friend's Signet ring in safe keeping and he gave it to Ironside who recognised it at once and sent it home.

Angus MacDonald wrote his own account of the sinking referred to by Alan Villiars as "the classic open-boat story of World Wars 1 and 2". There is also a survivors report by Jack Edmead.