503640 Private Robert Cummings Anthony RASC (d.17th June 1940) My uncle was on the Lancastria although I don't know too much about him. He was only 21, just a boy as were so many others. His name was Robert Anthony, and was a baker with the Royal Army Service Corps. He was on deck when the ship was bombed, but was terrified of the water, and wouldn't jump when his pals did. They shouted for him to jump, but he was too frightened. Some of his friends survived, and it was they who came and told his mother what had happened.
Although he was an only son, and just a boy, his name was never put on the war memorial here in Ayr, which his mother never understood. But after many letters and these long years his name is now on a small plate, under the memorial, too late for his mother.
Robert Anthony is buried in the Normoutier-en-L'Ile Communal Cemetery.
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