TOMORROW marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the troop ship Royal Edward, in the First World War, with the loss of 38 men from Burnley.

To commemorate their deaths, a special service will take place tomorrow at the cenotaph in Towneley Park.

Up to 1,000 men were drowned when the ship was torpedoed by a German submarine on August 13, 1915, in the Aegean Sea – only 600 survived.

It was the first time Burnley had suffered such a large loss of life in a single incident in the Great War and it had a major impact.

A month later, however, on September 25, 49 Burnley men were to die at the Battle of Loos and by the end of the war 16 per cent of the male population, aged between 16 and 46 had perished – one of the highest death rates in the country.

The men who died aboard the Royal Edward included 35 from one unit recruited from the Burnley area, including Padiham and Briercliffe.

They belonged to the new 2nd (Reserve) East Lancashire Field Ambulance, and had been recruited at the Royal Army Medical Corps’ (RAMC) headquarters in Barracks Road, in November, 1914.

The following July, while stationed in Sussex, 70 of the men were selected, by ballot, for service in Gallipoli and they boarded the Royal Edward Transport at Avonmouth, on July 30, which was also carrying reinforcements for the 29th Division.

They sailed for the island of Lemnos, a staging point for the Dardanelles, but were spotted by a German U boat captain, who let a hospital ship pass by before launching one torpedo which hit the stern sinking the troopship in six minutes.

News of the disaster began to filter back to England, although detailed information was sketchy and families waited anxiously for news – many had received postcards from the men during a stop over in Malta, that they were aboard the doomed vessel, which included the 35 from the 2nd East Lancashire Field Ambulance – 34 had been saved.

Captain Callam, of the RAMC, who trained the detachment described them as the best lot of men he had ever worked with.