A woman has spoken about the grief her mum felt as the brother she "raised herself" was killed in a WWII torpedo attack.
Samuel Harrocks, from Lewisham Road, was aboard the HMS Daring off the Scottish coast when the warship was targeted by U-boat commander Otto Kretschmer in 1940. Samuel, or Sam to his family, was just 23 at the time, and was asleep in his cabin when a torpedo sunk the battle ship, killing 157 crew members including Sam.
Elaine Buchan, who lives in Aintree, is Sam's niece, and got in touch with the ECHO after the new iteration of the HMS Daring made a visit to Liverpool docks. She spoke about how the tragedy impacted her whole life, even though it began as just "little bits" her mum told her when she was younger.
READ MORE: The 210-year-long story of the HMS Daring now docked in Liverpool
Elaine, who was born in 1952, told the ECHO: "All I know about Sam is from what mum used to tell me and what his fiancee at the time, Grace, told us. When you're younger you just listen to the little bits don't you.
"It was really difficult for my mum at the time. She had two siblings, Sam and Syd, and their mum had a letter to say her husband was missing. This was in WWI.
"He was presumed dead.
"She'd opened the letter from the government while she was stood at the top of the stairs. She read it and fainted, and fell down the steps and died.
"Their dad, my grandad, came home in the end. But he had to go back out to war again and the three siblings were farmed out to different relatives until they were about 16 years old.
"Mum practically raised Sam herself. Syd went out to Canada when he turned 16 to work on farms."
"Sam died in 1940. His dad died in 1941.
"Mum was told by somebody from the Navy that he was asleep in his cabin when the torpedo hit.
"Mum didn't have anywhere to go. I remember her saying her landlord was really kind to her at the time, it was him who told her the news of Sam's death.
"At the time he was engaged to a lady called Grace, who lived in London. She always came to see us and would always talk about how lovely he was. You can see now through the postcards he sent her and mum.
"Grace never got married after that. But mum, she worked in factories around here as a forewoman.
"After that she didn't dwell on things at all.
"Mum worked all her life and looking back it must have been to deal with the loss in some way. She was 96 years old when she died.
"Mum was very of her time. If you were having a bad time you just had to get on with it. There was just this idea of well you've got to get on with it.
"I'm sad my mum wasn't here. It was such a big thing for her all her life and just a story for me personally, but talking about it now does bring it all to life."
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