Memorial for Penlee Lifeboat disaster 40th anniversary

Families of the 16 people killed in the Penlee Lifeboat disaster have come together to create a granite memorial.

Designs and fundraising have begun for the memorial which will pay tribute to the lives lost in 1981 from both the cargo ship and lifeboat involved.

The eight crew of the Solomon Browne died trying to rescue the eight on board cargo ship Union Star in hurricane force winds off Cornwall.

December marks 40 years since the tragedy.

The memorial will sit on a clifftop directly above the site of the disaster in west Cornwall and it is estimated it will cost £26,000.

Jo Payne said: "Up until this point I don't believe it's been shown that we are one family, we are united. We all lost somebody."

"My children lost both their grandfathers that night on the boat, but you look at the Moreton family and my gosh, they lost a brother, a sister-in-law, children - horrific," she went on.

The lifeboat Solomon Browne battled waves of about 60ft (18m) tall and winds at hurricane force 12 when it launched on 19 December 1981.

A Royal Navy Sea King helicopter from RNAS Culdrose was unable to lift any of the eight crew from Union Star, and both boats were wrecked with no survivors.

David Paton, the memorial's designer, said he had been tasked with "an important job" to "represent the family members' stories in granite".

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