March is set to mark Merchant Navy Day by flying the Red Ensign at Fenland Hall next Friday.
Fenland District Council chairman Councillor Carol Cox will be hosting a brief ceremony on September 2 that will include the raising of the Merchant Navy’s official flag - also known as the Red Duster.
Merchant Navy Day has been commemorated on September 3 since 2000. It was on that date in 1939, the first day of the Second World War, that the SS Athenia was the first merchant ship to be torpedoed and sunk, with the loss of 128 lives.
About 32,000 merchant seafarers were killed in the Second World War – a higher casualty ratio than for any branch of the armed forces. Losses in the First World War totalled more than 14,600.
The Red Ensign has been the recognised flag of the Merchant Navy since 1854.
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