Dignitaries including the Princess Royal attended a ceremony at Southampton’s Hollybrook ceremony to commemorate the centenary of the sinking of the SS Mendi.

646 lives were lost when the SS Mendi sank just ten nautical miles off the Isle of Wight after being rammed by the cargo ship SS DArro.

The Darro survived the collision, but 616 South Africans and 30 crew on board the Mendi were killed.

Amongst those present at the ceremony were descendants of those who lost their lives at sea, including Natalia Sifuba. Her great great great great grandfather the Reverend Isaac Dyobha had enlisted in the army as a volunteer, travelling from his home in South Africa to join the ship before its short but fateful voyage.

Oral history records that the men met their fate with great dignity. The Reverend Dyobha is reported to have calmed the men by crying out in a loud voice: "Be quiet and calm, my countrymen. What is happening now is what you came to do…you are going to die, but that is what you came to do. I, a Zulu, say you are my brothers….Xhosas, Swazis, Pondos, Basotho and all others…. let us die like brothers".

Some men were killed outright in the collision while others were trapped below decks.