PART OF THE IOLAIRE 100 YEARS PROJECT
‘At 1.55am on 1st January 1919, a naval yacht carrying sailors home on leave ran aground on rocks near the village of Holm, a mere 20 yards from the shore of the Isle of Lewis and less than half a mile from the safe harbour of Stornoway. HMY Iolaire was crowded with 280 men, mostly naval reservists returning to the safety and comfort of their homes after the horror of the Great War.’
Malcolm Macdonald and Donald John MacLeod’s painstaking research has taken decades and draws on an exceptional range of sources. The Darkest Dawn is a significant and enduring testament to all those on board the Iolaire on the night of New Year 1919.
