By Terrie Todd
Like many British children, 14-year-old Beth Cummings was eager to be a participant in the CORB program and go to Canada to escape the war. She had already been evacuated the year before, to Chester—only 17 miles from her Liverpool home. While she and her friend Thelma were fortunate to stay in a welcoming home, not all the children were as lucky. Hosts were expected to take in children whether they wanted to or not, for eight shillings a week. Since the threats of war had not really happened yet, students began returning home on weekends and then many simply stayed home until the scheme fizzled out.
By the summer of 1940, however, bombs were dropping and children and parents alike could see the value of moving kids to safety. Beth was delighted to learn she’d been accepted to go to Canada and excitedly boarded the SS City of Benares on September 12 with her new friends—among them her new bestie, Bess Walder, 15. Beth and Bess quickly became inseparable. They hoped and prayed they’d be placed in the same home—or at least the same community—once they reached Canada.
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SS City of
Benares, Archives Centre, Maritime Museum collection, reference
MCR/61/371 (copyright unknown, believed to be expired)
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“On our fifth day at sea, the seventeenth, the weather turned for the worse and we all spent that day in our cabins, most of us seasick. Just after ten pm, we heard two explosions. We heard someone yelling that the ship had been torpedoed. I rushed out of my cabin into the corridor and headed for our muster point. I met up with my new friend, Bess. Bess had to fight her way out of her cabin because a cupboard had fallen against the door. We rushed to the lifeboat deck to find chaos and panic, and no sign of Bess’s brother, Louis. We were guided to lifeboat Number Five, which launched at a terrifying angle. The sea was so turbulent, and we all spilled out.”
What followed was the most grueling 18 hours Beth would ever experience.
“Bess and I managed to swim to our waterlogged lifeboat and
hang on as best we could. Eventually, the boat tipped upside down and we
grasped the rope that ran along the spine. Several others hung on with us. Bess
hung on the opposite side of me, so we could see only each others’ hands until
a wave carried us up, then down again. On the way down, we could glimpse each
others’ faces for a second. Then our bodies would slam against the boat and the
whole thing started over again. At one point, I lost my grip and slipped off
but I was able to grab the rope again.”
Last month, I told about how the girls were eventually rescued and returned home by the HMS Hurricane. Beth spent three weeks in the hospital, recovering from badly frostbitten and infected feet. At her mother’s encouragement, she used the time to write down everything about the ordeal. As a result, she retained clear and sharp details.
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Boys aboard the rescue ship Hurricane. (Louis Walder, center) Credit:
Imperial War Museum
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Although they never made it to Canada, both girls survived World War II and remained friends for life. They even became sisters-in-law when Bess met and married Beth’s brother, Geoff Cummings, in 1947. Bess went on to organize several reunions of the Benares survivors in the years that followed.
“What I think helped me and Beth to survive as we did was that we were doing it together.” (Bess Walder, quoted in Children of the Doomed Voyage, Janet Menzies, 2005)
Even If I Perish will release in November, 2025. It is Terrie’s novel based on the sinking of the SS City of Benares and on the heroism of escort Mary Cornish and the six boys she cared for in a lifeboat for eight days. Terrie is the award-winning author of ten historical and two split-time novels, most of which have won Word Awards through The Word Guild. Her 2023 release, April’s Promise, was a finalist in the ACFW Carol Awards. She lives with her husband, Jon, on the Canadian prairies.
“If I perish, I perish.” A sermon based on Queen Esther’s famous words spurs music teacher Mary Cornish to action. She volunteers to escort a group of 15 girls from England to Canada as part of Britain’s World War II child evacuation program.
All is well aboard the SS City of Benares until September 17, 1940. With a storm brewing in the North Atlantic, a German U-boat releases its torpedo and breaches the ship’s hull. Do the Nazis know ninety children are on board?
In the scramble to save as many lives as possible, Mary lands in a crowded lifeboat as the only female among crew members, passengers, and six young boys. In the storm’s aftermath, two things soon become crystal clear: that Lifeboat 12 has become separated from all the others, and that Mary has been placed here for such a time as this—even if she perishes.
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Thank you for writing this. I love how the times makes heroes.
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