Scapa Flow Museum 'Favourite Object' blog - a sign with a sad story - Nick Hewitt

Scapa Flow Museum 'Favourite Object' blog - Nick Hewitt

Long before I was lucky enough to make Orkney my permanent home, I visited professionally on a number of occasions, as a naval historian based at first the Imperial War Museum and later the National Museum of the Royal Navy. It was on one of these visits in 2011 that I caught sight of this incredible object, hiding in the corner of the main artefact store. It is actually part of the collections owned by Stromness Museum, who have generously agreed to lend it to us for the new displays at the Scapa Flow Museum.

There are many ways in which the wartime history of Scapa Flow and Orkney provides a gateway into huge stories, but this one really stopped me in my tracks. On 16 March 1940, German bombers attacked the naval base and raided right across the islands, dropping more than six hundred bombs. Some fell on the tiny village of Brig o’ Waithe, killing 27-year-old James Isbister, from Stenness. James was the first British civilian to be killed by enemy bombing during the Second World War. He left a young widow, Lily and a baby son, Neil; they had only been married three years. This remarkable splinter-damaged road sign was recovered from the site.

Every time I look at this, I think of that extraordinary fact. All that misery and suffering, experienced across the length and breadth of the British Isles, from London and Coventry to Liverpool and Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester, Glasgow, Swansea, Belfast, and countless other cities and towns. It all began here. Around 70,000 British civilians died in the Second World War, most of them as a consequence of enemy bombing. Civilians were in the front line as never before. They were to a great extent targets, a strategic resource which could be degraded to impede the enemy’s war effort. Just 2,000 civilians died in the First World war, before strategic bombing had really come of age.

The United Kingdom was not the first country to be bombed during the Second World War, of course, and far more people died in the later Allied bombing offensives against Germany and Japan. Nevertheless, for me James’ tragic death really personalizes the start of a more ruthless age when any kind of restraint in warfare was gradually abandoned. I’m absolutely delighted that we can for the first time put this very emotive, striking piece on display, and I hope that it will make our visitors stop in their tracks and think for a while, just as it did to me all those years ago.

Nick Hewitt, Team Manager (Culture)

Image: Slideshow of road sign from the village of Brig o’ Waithe showing damage caused by enemy bomb fragments during the air raid of the 16 March 1940, and James Isbister on his wedding day with his bride, Lily.

Scapa Flow Museum opens to the public on 2 July 2022 - visit our page for latest news.

Scapa Flow Museum is run by Orkney Islands Council and charts Orkney’s military involvement in the First and Second World Wars. Named after the vast natural harbour it overlooks, the Museum provides a safe home for a major collection of wartime artefacts, many of national and international importance.

Its recent refurbishment project valued at of £4.4 million, comprising an extension to the Museum and refurbishment of the historic pumphouse, has been supported by Orkney Islands Council, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic Environment Scotland, the Orkney LEADER 2014-2020 programme, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Museums Galleries Scotland and the Scottish Government’s European Regional Development Fund programme, managed by NatureScot through the Natural & Cultural Heritage Fund. (The Natural & Cultural Heritage Fund is part of the Scottish Government’s European Regional Development Fund programme, which finishes in 2023. NatureScot is also managing another element of the programme – the Green Infrastructure Fund. The Scottish Government is the Managing Authority for the European Regional Development Fund and the European Structural Funds 2014-20 Programme. For further information visit the Scottish Government website or follow @scotgovESIF.)