Content
May 23rd 2019
PS Medway Queen - "Heroine of Dunkirk"
The History and Restoration of the Paddle Steamer
Mark & Pam Bathurst
About 50 members of the Heritage Society enjoyed an entertaining talk at the Fairland Hall by Pam and Mark Bathurst on the history of the paddle steamer Medway Queen, the Heroine of Dunkirk.
Introduced by Rosemary Charles, the speakers had travelled from Kent to deliver their presentation. Built in Scotland in 1924 for service along the River Medway and the Thames Estuary, the Medway Queen offered pleasure trips from Rochester in the 1920s and 1930s, some as far as Southend. In 1937 she was present at Spithead for George VI’s Coronation Fleet Review.
With war looming in 1939 the ship was painted battleship grey and armed with machine guns before joining the Royal Navy as a minesweeper in the English Channel. Then in late May 1940 she took part in Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of retreating British and French soldiers from Dunkirk. Two years earlier she had been converted from coal to oil burning, which made her more efficient than many others in the flotilla of little ships involved in the mighty operation. She could get closer to the shore than many of the other ships.
There was no shortage of volunteers eager to join her crew, three army cadets being under 18 years of age, and she made seven journeys to the French beaches while rescuing 7000 men, a record for any ship up to the size of a destroyer. One soldier even attempted to smuggle a young French lady on board!
Another ship, the Brighton Belle, was sinking, but all her passengers were rescued by the Medway Queen without loss of life although she was heavily overcrowded. She even shot down three enemy aircraft. With her outstanding record she was given the name “The Heroine of Dunkirk”. After the operation was completed she returned to her minesweeping duties. With the end of the war she once again provided pleasure trips and in 1953 attended the Queen’s Coronation Review at Spithead.
After her last sailing in 1963 it seemed she would be scrapped, but the Daily Mail launched a campaign to save her and for a while in the 1960s she became a nightclub, but then fell into a sorry state. The future looked bleak, but in 1985 the Medway Queen Preservation Society was formed. In 1987 she was moved to Damhead Creek, Kingsnorth, and continued to deteriorate until in 2006 when the society received a Heritage Lottery grant of £1.8 million to renovate her, subject to the society raising £225000 itself. The work involved in the enormous project of restoring her got underway in April 2009 at the Albion Dry Dock at Bristol and was described with various photographs.
In November 2013 she finally made the journey back to the River Medway and her new home at Gillingham Pier. Now the Medway Queen with her Visitor Centre is a tourist attraction with details on website www.medwayqueen.co.uk.. The speakers hope to see her back to sea by 2024 for her hundredth birthday.
Kevin Hurn, who was in the chair, thanked the enthusiastic presenters for a poignant and entertaining presentation.
The society’s next meeting will be on June 27 when Jacqui Horton will give a talk entitled “A personal tour of Norwich Cathedral”.
For more information about the Medway Queen Preservation Society, visit the website at www.medwayqueen.co.uk.
