A PEMBROKESHIRE historian will feature on a special radio programme tonight (Wednesday, May 6) to mark the centenary of the sinking of a luxury ship.

Hedd Ladd Lewis, who hails from Boncath and teaches history in Ysgol Dyffryn Teifi, follows the story of his great uncle who perished when the Lusitania sank off the coast of Ireland in 1915.

The Lusitania embarked on its Atlantic crossing between New York and Liverpool on May 1, 1915, carrying 2,000 passengers. Six days later tragedy struck when the Lusitania crossed the path of the German U-2 submarine. Without warning, she was hit by a torpedo, and within 18 minutes sunk to the bottom of the sea taking 1,201 passengers with her.

Unknown to the passengers on board, the ship was unlawfully carrying a cargo of war weapons. While Great Britain and America mourned, the Germans celebrated the disaster as one of its big victories since the beginning of the First World War.

Whilst delving into his family’s history, Mr Lewis noticed his great uncle, Owen Ladd, was among the drowned. During his journey to discover more, he came across the stories of other Welsh men and women who lost their lives on the ship.

Mr Lewis said: “Owen Ladd was my grandfather’s cousin and this pushed me to discover more of not only Owen’s story but the stories of the other Welsh on board. Owen Ladd was obviously a great loss to his new community in Winnipeg, but the loss would have been a hundred times worse at his home in Eglwyswrw. He was keeping a promise to his parents – he was returning home.”

The radio programme will be broadcast on BBC Radio Cymru on Wednesday, May 6 at 6.15pm and will be available on the BBC Radio Cymru website www.bbc.co.uk/radiocymru on catch up.