Lost trawlermen: Calls for national day of remembrance

A computer-generated image of Hull’s St Andrew’s Dock in its heyday

MP Karl Turner will lead a debate in Parliament tonight calling on the Government to recognise Hull’s Lost Trawlermen’s Day as a national day of remembrance for fishermen who have lost their lives at sea.

On the last Sunday of January, Hull commemorates the more than 6,000 trawlermen and boys who left the city to put fish on the nation’s tables and did not return. Hull was once home to the biggest deep water fishing fleet in the world.

Fishing communities up and down the country share that experience. Fishing was seven times more dangerous than mining and was the UK’s most dangerous profession in the 20th century. Many of those lost have no grave and bereaved families often have no focal point for remembrance.

The sacrifice of all those who worked in the industry has been “under-recognised for too long at a national level”, Mr Turner said.

Tonight’s debate aims to secure official recognition for a national Lost Trawlermen’s Day on the last Sunday in January, with funding to mark the occasion .

The name ‘Lost Trawlermen’s Day’ is taken from the long-standing Hull event and is not intended to exclude those who lost their lives fishing by means other than a trawl, or women in the fishing industry. Alternative names would be considered.

Mr Turner, the Hull East Labour MP, said: “An official day to remember those who paid the ultimate price to put the national dish on the table is long overdue. This is a massive part of our shared story that has been under-recognised for far too long, but by following Hull’s lead we can begin to change that.”