Tourists visit Orkney for a variety of reasons: the archaeology dating back 5,000 years; the outstanding landscape; its flora and fauna; and the quality food and drink produced locally. For some, however, there is a more poignant reason and that is to visit the grave of a family member killed whilst in service during the periods of two World Wars.
St Olaf Cemetery on the outskirts of Kirkwall, overlooking Scapa Flow, contains the graves of 152 men who died whilst on active duty during those world conflicts. Their graves are maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. A few are burials of local men like 33 year old Robert Harcus, a Royal Naval Reservist, who was serving aboard HM Trawler Touraco in Portland, Dorset, England when he suffered a heart attack. He died on 13 September 1917. Before the war Robert had been a fisherman. His body was returned to Orkney to be buried in St Olaf Cemetery. With him was a letter he had been writing to his mother on the night of his death. It was unfinished.
Most of the deaths happened in or near Orkney.
On 30 January 1940, the Leith registered Steamship Giralda was bombed and sunk by German aircraft just 3 miles South East of South Ronaldsay. It had been en route from Ayr to Kirkwall with a cargo of coal. The vessel was ablaze and the crew took to the lifeboat. The plight of the crew was seen by a Scottish Airways passenger plane as it flew overhead. Captain Vallance waved at the men to encourage them in their endeavours to reach the shore in pounding seas.
Islanders and service personnel stationed in the islands ran to help. Tragically the lifeboat overturned just quarter of a mile from the shore and the men were tossed into the sea. Farmers Archibald Bichan and John Cromarty, tied a rope around their waists and, even though they could not swim, they plunged into the surf to attempt to rescue some of the men. All 23 of the crew drowned.
Archibald Bichan and John Cromarty worked away in freezing waters for an hour and half recovering 11 bodies. Lieutenant William Barnett of the Royal Signals, swam out and brought ashore one body. The rest the sea gradually gave up. Many of those lost were from Shetland. Their bodies were identified by Shetlanders living in Orkney.
Captain Erasmusson was a Shetlander but lived with his wife in Ogilvie Terrace, Edinburgh. On the same day as he was drowned a letter arrived at his house informing him that he had been appointed a pilot by the Forth pilotage authorities. His body was transported to Edinburgh. The remains of the three men from Ayr were also sent south.
James Morrison, 35, worked for his dad before the war as a thatcher. He was the youngest son, his older brother having been killed in France, half an hour before the ceasefire, in 1918.
James Black, 53, served on a hospital ship during World War 1. He survived when in 1937 the St Mungo sank in the Mersey. He had tried to join a minesweeper but he was deemed too old and was turned down. This was his first trip on the Giralda.
Donald Farquhar, 42, was from Wick, but married a Shetland lass and lived in Sandwick. He had served in the Seaforth Highlanders throughout World War 1, where he was wounded and gassed.
The bo’sun, Robert Bruce, and Able Seaman Thomas Williamson, were returned to Shetland. Transport was arranged and paid for by the Salvesen Company and the Orkney and Shetland Steam Navigation Co. The Venture took the men on to their home island of Whalsay. Three hundred Shetlanders attended their funerals. In total eight Shetlanders and one resident Shetlander were killed making it the heaviest single loss sustained by Shetland. The BBC published news of the tragedy the following morning, before the next of kin had been contacted.
The CWGC graves in St Olaf are from all branches of the armed forces and the merchant fleet. There are 27 Norwegian graves.
Martin Sylte was a farmer and enlisted in the Norwegian army on 9 April 1940 when Norway was invaded by Nazi Germany. He was seriously wounded in the leg preparing Setnesmoen for an airfield. He was evacuated to Orkney on a hospital ship by died of his wounds on 6 May 1940.
Over 4,500 Norwegian seafarers lost their lives in World War 2. The S.S. Tora Elise was bombed by German Heinkel aircraft whilst she was travelling in Convoy from England to Norway. The attack took place on 20 March 1940 when Norway was still a neutral country. The First Mate, Berner Berntzen, who had survived being torpedoed in 1918, was killed on his way to the Bridge. Also killed were Anders Gulliksen, the Second Mate, and Able Seaman Stian Hansen. The Captain, Gullick Ramberg, and two Ordinary Seamen, John Hvidsten and Bertil Knudsen, were seriously injured. The First Mate of D/S Cygnus, from the Convoy, took command of the Tora Elise and she was taken to Kirkwall. The three injured men were cared for in the Balfour Hospital and the three who had lost their lives were buried in St Olaf Cemetery.
The great sacrifice made by Norway’s merchant seafarers during both World Wars is told on board the D/S Hestmanden. This floating museum, built in 1911, is the only surviving ship from Norway’s shipping fleet of over 1000 vessels that sailed during WW2.
In May 2025 it visited Orkney to mark 80 years since the ending of the war in Europe as part of a convoy of 5 Norwegian historic vessels. As well as D/S Hestamenden it included: M/K Heland and M/K Andholmen, two Norwegian fishing vessels; and M/K Erkna and M/B Arnefjord, which were used to transport soldiers, resistance fighters and fugitives to and from Norway.
There are guided tours of the war graves in St Olaf Cemetery led by a local CWGC guide with an extensive knowledge of the men who lie at rest there.
Fiona Grahame