In September 1940 the SS City of Benares, of the Ellerman Lines, was being used as an evacuation ship under the scheme of the Children's Overseas Reception Board to evacuate children to Canada in World War Two. The ship was part of a convoy and was carrying 90 child evacuees among her passengers. On 18th September 1940, the ship was torpedoed and sunk by German U-boat U-48. 77 of the children died along with 183 other people, and the sinking resulted in the cancellation of the CORB plan to evacuate British children abroad. This photograph shows four of the children who survived: (from l to r) Louis Walder, John Baker, Rex Thorne and Jack Keeley.