[ printer friendly version ] |
The Scots at War Trust A - Z Index Miscellany |
|
| Entry: The Gretna Green Train Crash | ||
|
Three trains were involved; a special troop train, a local train and the night express coming north from Euston Station, London. The special troop train carried the Leith based 7th Battalion Royal Scots, Territorial Force bound for Liverpool on their way to Gallipoli as part of 156th Brigade of the 52nd (Lowland) Division. The Battalion had been mobilised at the outbreak of the First World War and had served on coastal defences. Bound for war and in high spirits they left Larbert in two trains and headed south. It was the second of these trains that was involved in the crash.
Minutes later the northbound express from Euston crashed into the debris setting it on fire. It was Britain’s worst train crash. Three officers, twenty-nine non-commissioned officers and one hundred and eighty two soldiers were killed or burned to death. Thousands lined the streets of Leith for the funeral procession and burial at Rosebank Cemetery. Most of those who survived the
crash returned home and the remainder of the 7th Battalion sailed
to Gallipoli. The two signalmen were held responsible and served terms of
imprisonment.
|
||
|
www.scotsatwar.org.uk | The Scots at War Trust | ©2004 Dr Henderson |
||
Few train crashes in
Scotland can have had more of an impact upon one small community than the
Gretna rail disaster which took place at Quintinshill Junction on the 22nd
May 1915.
The Signalmen at
Quintinshill, anxious to complete their paperwork, simply forgot the local
train which should have been shunted on to a loop line but which was sitting
directly outside their signal box and gave the all clear signal for the
troop train to come through. The impact was so great that the troop train
was crushed to less than half its normal length and the wreckage overturned
on to the northbound line.