Shetland Bus - Losses

Losses

The first of the Shetland Bus men to lose his life was Nils Nesse, 23, from Bremnes on the island Bømlo south of Bergen. He was killed on 28 October 1941 when German aircraft attacked the Siglaos on its way to Shetland from Norway. Nesse was buried at Lunna Kirk churchyard with a Scottish ceremony, because there was no Norwegian clergyman to conduct the funeral. His body was moved to his home in Norway in 1948, but there is still a cross marking his grave at Lunna.

Nesse was the second Norwegian buried at Lunna Kirk. The first was an unknown sailor buried on 5 February 1940. He was probably from the cargo ship Hop, that had left Bergen on 2 February 1940, and was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine. The third man was buried 9 June 1942. He was found drifting in the sea by a local crofter, John Johnson from Lunna. The "Shetland/Norwegian Friendship Society" has set up a plaque on the churchyard wall in remembrance to these two unknown men.

David Howarth (1912–2 July 1991), requested that his ashes be scattered over the water at Lunna Voe. A memorial plaque is mounted on the churchyard wall at Lunna Kirk.