This memorial inside St Magnus Cathedral commemorates Pat Shearer, who died exactly 100 years ago today. A few years ago I met his niece, an elderly lady who had lived in Canada for many years (and whose name I have forgotten). She told me he was the captain of a steamship in the South China Sea, and one of his Chinese crewmen fell into the water. Shearer dived into the water to save him, but they were both drowned. It was considered extremely odd by his fellow officers that Captain Shearer would have bothered to try and save the life of a mere Chinaman. But as his niece put it, he was Orcadian, and he would have considered every life to be of equal value.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 14:22:52 +0000
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