City youngster Lewis Crowson was just 18 when he was killed in a peacetime accident off England's south coast in 1948, and the Peterborough Royal Naval Association arranged a remembrance ceremony to mark the anniversary of his death.

Until last month, however, organisers could find no trace of any of Mr Crowson's remaining family members, and feared no one would be able to pay their respects at the service.

But after an appeal was launched in the ET, his two surviving sisters came forward, and more than 40 relatives gathered at his graveside on Sunday to join in with the tribute.

For Joyce Lester, the service was particularly poignant.

She was forced to miss her younger brother's funeral 60 years ago when it was postponed at the last minute, and she could not afford to travel from her Bedford home for the re-arranged ceremony.

"I never got to attend his funeral, so it meant so much for me to be there," said the 86-year-old great-grandmother, of Kings Dyke Close, in Stanground, Peterborough.

"When my daughter took my arm and led me to Lewis's grave on Sunday, I could not believe the number of people who were there.

"It was a lovely service, and when the man with the bugle played the Last Post it was all too much.

"I never had the chance to thank the people who organised it all, but they did such a wonderful job. I was very pleased."

Lewis was the youngest of six children born to Edith and George Crowson, who lived in Woodston, Peterborough.

The former Sea Cadet was on national service with the Royal Navy ship HMS Illustrious when tragedy struck on October 17, 1948.

He was crammed on board an overcrowded "liberty boat", with dozens of his shipmates, when it capsized in Portland harbour, Dorset, claiming the lives of 29 men.

Mrs Lester said: "It just seemed a waste of life when he died like that at his age.

"He was such a lovely boy and everybody thought the world of him."

Mr Crowson's body was not recovered from the sea until a month after the accident, and his ashes were buried in Woodston Cemetery after being sent home to his family.

On the 60th anniversary of the tragedy, memorial ceremonies for the dead were held in Portland and across the country.

In Peterborough, the service was attended by Mrs Lester and Mr Crowson's only other surviving sibling, Doris Grooms, who lives in Dogsthorpe, Peterborough, along with generations of relatives and a contingent from the city's Sea Cadets.

Organiser Paul Nash, of the Peterborough Royal Naval Association, said he never expected so many to attend.

He said: "I had tried to contact the family through the internet, but kept running into brick walls.

"It was only after the article went in The Evening Telegraph that someone got in touch and it just mushroomed from there.

"It was fantastic that so many people were able to come."

Elsewhere online:
HMS Illustrious from www.royal-navy.mod.uk.