Heroic Deeds of the War - Miss Mary Cornish. During the Second World War the City of Benares was used as an evacuee ship to evacuate 90 children from Britain to Canada. The ship was torpedoed in 1940 by the German submarine U-48 with heavy loss of life, including the death of 77 children. Cornish,an accomplished classical pianist who had volunteered as a children's escort, took charge of 6 of the surviving children and they survived for eight days in an open lifeboat. She was awarded the Medal of the Order of the British Empire (Civil Division) (OBE). The sinking resulted in the total cancellation of the Children's Overseas Reception Board (CORB) plan to relocate British children abroad. This card was produced by The Overseas League, who organised schools to collect pennies to buy cigarettes for troops overseas - with the delivered cigarettes came a card (of which this one) bearing details of the sender school and a request to 'acknowledge the gift' which will give 'the children a real pleasure'.