Jacques Cohen's 'Lancastria'
A new choral work commemorates the worst disaster in British maritime history
On the morning of 17 June 1940, in the early days of World War II, British ocean liner the HMT Lancastria was anchored three miles off St Nazaire on the French Atlantic Coast. She had been ordered to repatriate British servicemen and civilians who had been left in France after the evacuation of Dunkirk. By mid-afternoon almost nine thousand people were packed aboard the Lancastria when she was hit four times by enemy bombs. Within half an hour she had sunk with a loss of life at least equal to the combined losses of the 'Lusitania' and 'Titanic' disasters.
The sinking of the Lancastria is considered to be the worst disaster in British maritime history. It is estimated that between 4,000 and 7,000 people died. British prime minister Winston Churchill suppressed news of the attack using the 'D-Notice' system, and it took over five weeks until news of the disaster appeared in the press - first in The New York Times and then in The Scotsman.
The HMT Lancastria sinking on 17 June 1940
This tragic event is marked each year by a memorial service, held on or as near as possible to 17 June at St Katharine Cree Church in London, UK, at the centre of the city's historic ship-building industry. The 2025 service will be held at 1pm on 12 June 2025, marking the eighty-fifth anniversary of this terrible event.
The Lancastria Memorial Window in
St Katharine Cree Church, London, UK.
Photo courtesy of Lewis Phillips
The City of London-based Lloyd's Choir, which sings each year at the memorial service, will this year be performing a special new choral work, Lancastria, written by the choir's music director, Jacques Cohen. The new work is a personal response to the disaster - a meditation on the huge loss of life, inviting the listener to engage with the emotions of this complex and terrible situation. Cohen felt this was a piece that had to be written, especially because of the Lloyd's Choir's link to St Katharine Cree church and the annual memorial service.
At the 12 June 2025 memorial service, Cohen's Lancastria will be performed in an a cappella version which he has created specially for this event.
Lloyd's Choir singing at St Katharine Cree Church
Cohen's new work also exists in a longer, choral-orchestral version, which also includes a performance by a bagpiper, and the work will receive its first performance in this fuller version at the Lloyd's Choir's annual spring concert, 7pm on Thursday 27 March 2025 at St Giles Cripplegate Church, Fore Street, London, EC2Y 8DA, UK. The choir's concert, accompanied by the Cohen Ensemble, also includes performances of Felix Mendelssohn's Psalm 114 and Gioacchino Rossini's Stabat Mater.
Publicity for Lloyd's Choir's 2025 Spring Concert
Jacques Cohen is equally known as conductor and composer. He is music director of the Cohen Ensemble (formerly Isis Ensemble) and has conducted concerts and broadcasts with such groups as Kremerata Baltica, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Sofia Soloists, the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Albania Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra and the Bucharest Philharmonic. He has also been music director on several opera productions with a variety of companies, and is a passionate communicator, especially renowned for his unique ability to engage audiences in concerts. His compositions and arrangements include commissions for choir, orchestra, chamber works and opera. His string orchestra arrangements, particularly that of Modest Musorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, are fast becoming staples of the repertoire.
Jacques Cohen. Photo © 2013 Lester Barnes
Regarding his new work, Cohen says:
Ever since I have been involved with Lloyd's Choir and became aware of their involvement with the Lancastria, conducting the choir for the annual service at St Katharine Cree, I have felt compelled to help commemorate this in some way. Since I am a composer, writing a piece seemed the obvious thing. Originally I was going to write an orchestral piece but realised it was important to involve the choir as well, and since the bagpipe melody has always been such an important and moving part of the ceremony, I knew that that too had to play a role. Then when I came across the Tennyson text everything came together. I realised that I needed to write a simple a capella version especially to be performed as part of the annual commemorative service at St Katharine Cree in addition to the more elaborate version with orchestra and bagpipes that we will perform in March. The music paints Tennyson's words whilst moving towards the bagpipe melody as its ultimate goal.
Lloyd's Choir and the Cohen Ensemble. Photo © 2022 Nick Rutter
Besides its annual orchestral concert, Lloyd's Choir gives several concerts each year, usually at St Katharine Cree. Christmas is always busy; as well as the choir's own carol concert, carols are sung at the Rostrum in the Underwriting Room at Lloyd's, and at other venues in the City of London. Members of the choir also sing at a variety of church services during the year, usually at St Katharine Cree, and occasionally out of London. Although the choir now attracts singers from the entire City financial community and beyond, membership is still dominated by those working in the insurance market. In some quarters it is said that Lloyd's Choir is a rare example of a situation where underwriters and brokers are always in harmony ... or nearly always!
Further information: lloydschoir.com and stkatharinecree.org
Posted 13 March 2025 by Keith Bramich
