Memento of a doomed liner

ON September 3, 1939 — the first day of war with Germany — the 13,500-ton liner Athenia was lost in the North Atlantic. Outward bound from Liverpool to Montreal and carrying 1,100 passengers, she was torpedoed and sunk some 250 miles west of Ireland by a German submarine and 118 lives were lost.
To my astonishment a few days after this I found on the pavement in Rothbury an enamelled brooch in the shape of a ship’s wheel bearing the name T.S.S. Athenia and the logo of the Anchor & Donaldson Line. How it got there I have no idea, but I still have it in my possession. It is a remarkable memento of the war.
- Dr F. L. Constable, Roseworth Avenue, Gosforth, Newcastle.