My name is Sylvia Dawn. I was named after the ship that my dad was on in 1944, the Silver Dawn, which was what they call a drifter. It was a trawler and was turned into a minesweeper. He was on that ship when I was born and I was named after the ship. When my dad died, we found this newspaper cutting in his wallet and nobody had known about it, and it actually mentions the Silver Dawn.
What happened in Dunkirk was that lots of the ships went over to bring the troops back and the 5 drifters including Silver Dawn went over to collect people from the beaches. They had instructions to pick up 10 men, but they didn't take any notice of that and mostly they brought back 200 men. It mentions the Silver Dawn had the record for a ship of her size. She brought 314 men back in one go. They only got away with it because the sea was so calm.
On the last day they were on their way to safety, but they turned back to pick men up from a sinking troopship, The Scotia and they were being strafed by the Germans. So brave. You know they didn't think they were brave. They were doing what they thought was right.
Duty is a very old fashioned word, isn't it? But they were doing their duty, but it was more than that, you know. We’re not often called to be brave are we in this day and age? But I think it's doing the right thing without thinking about it.
It’s a totally different situation, but my daughter was murdered when she was 22. I went to court to see the man who killed her. Everybody said, "Oh, you must hate him," but my brother had said to me, whatever you do, forgive him because it'll ruin your life, and I thought, no, that's too hard. But when I thought about it and I looked at him standing in the dock and thought he's ruined his life the same as our lives have been ruined and I found I could forgive him. I didn't forget, but I could forgive him and it lifted a great load off my mind. If I can forgive him, I can forgive anybody for anything, you know.
However bad it is, however often bad things happen to you, life goes on and you just have to not feel sorry for yourself. Just think, well, that's it. This has happened. Now I'm going to get over that.
I never forget that I'm named after the Silver Dawn. She wasn't a glamorous ship. She was a trawler. I was named after a very, very brave little ship. I just think it's a sort of link between me and the ship and what must have been quite a frightening time.
Yes, I tell everybody I’m named after the ship. I didn't want the Silver Dawn to die. I'm very proud of it, you know.
