(Note: It's a long article with many accompanying images, but given the significance of the incident and its anniversary I thought it worthy of quoting in full. bignosemac)
Quintinshill tragedy: Families gather to remember the 226 victims of Britain's worst rail disaster 100 years onTHE train crash near Gretna killed 214 of the Leith-based 7th Battalion the Royal Scots Territorial Force, who were heading the front line at Gallipoli, as well as 12 civillians.
Locals gaze disbelievingly at the scene of the crash
ON the night of May 21, 1915, Sergeant William Allan penned a love letter to his wife, in which he told her his regiment was ready to set off to war.
These were the last words Cassandra would ever hear from her husband. Less than 10 hours later, he was killed at Quintinshill near Gretna in what remains the worst rail disaster in British history.
The train crash at 6.50am on May 22 killed 214 of the Leith-based 7th Battalion the Royal Scots Territorial Force, who were heading to Liverpool before sailing for the front line at Gallipoli.
This week, more than 100 relatives of the victims and survivors will travel from all over the world to meet for the first time to mark the 100th anniversary of the tragedy which shocked Scotland.
Sergeant Allan^s grandson Dick, 67, will attend a commemoration service in Leith^s Rosebank Cemetery, where the majority of the young soldiers are buried together.
Dick^s father Eric was just 21 months old, when his father perished in the disaster.
He admits that finding his grandfather^s last letter hammered home the true extent of the tragedy.
The retired finance director, of Edinburgh, said: ^William wrote my grandmother that letter at 9pm and the following morning he was gone, killed before he had the chance to fight for his country.
Sgt Allen with his wife Cassandra and son Eric in the days before his death.
^It^s a letter of love and the last words Cassandra would ever hear from my grand-father. She died when I was nine but never spoke of the tragedy as it was too painful. But she kept the letter and the telegram sent from her brother, who had gone to Carlisle to identify William^s body before it was brought back to Leith. The horror of the tragedy is almost too much to comprehend. There was not a street in Leith that did not lose a man that day ^ a whole community of young men wiped out in minutes. That^s why it is so important to mark the 100th anniversary. I go to Rosebank every year where there is a memorial cross and a plaque in memory of the men who were killed. It will be good to meet the families of other soldiers for the first time and remember the men, whose pointless deaths had a profound effect on so many.^
The crash occurred when the troop train carrying 498 members of the battalion travelling from Larbert, Stirlingshire, collided with a local train parked on the wrong line at Quintinshill, Dumfriesshire. One minute later, a Glasgow-bound express ploughed into the wreckage. In the crash and ensuing fire, 214 men from the battalion died and a further 226 were injured.
The disaster also claimed the lives of 12 civilians including Rachel Nimmo, 28, and her baby son Dickson.
It is still the worst accident for casualties in the history of railways in Britain.
Dick, who has four grandchildren of his own, admits it is hard to comprehend the carnage the emergency services would have encountered that morning.
He said: ^The devastation must have been beyond belief. The Royal Scots troops were crammed into carriages that were still lit by gas. They would have exploded on impact setting fire to the coaches and causing horrific injuries. The true death toll is hard to know as only 53 of the soldiers, including my father, could be positively identified. His body was brought back to the drill hall in Leith, where all the coffins were laid out side by side. Those whose remains could not be identified were buried in a mass grave in Rosebank. My grandfather was buried in a family grave in Warriston Cemetery which, thanks to local historian Andrew Grant, we were able to locate a few years ago. We are one of only a few families who have an individual grave to visit.^
The anniversary of Quintinshill will be commemorated at events in Gretna, Larbert and Leith. The Edinburgh event will be attended by Princess Anne ^ the Royal Colonel in chief of 1Scots ^ and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
A telegram confirming William Allen's death
John Edward, 46, is the man responsible for bringing the Quintinshill descendants together for the first time.
His great-grandfather Private James McSherry was killed in the crash. He said: ^I have been going to Rosebank cemetery on the anniversary for years and as the 100th year approached the Royal Scots asked if I could help track down families of the soldiers.
^I set up a Facebook page and was soon getting messages from all over the world. To date, I^ve managed to locate the families of 120 soldiers and have uncovered some amazing stories. I^ve been able to access death certificates and provide them with photos of their loved ones who, up to now, have just been part of family mythology.^
The dad-of-two, whose mother Elizabeth will read a psalm at the service on May 23, added: ^When I started sending out tickets, I realised just how many families still live in Leith, some just doors from each other. I can^t begin to imagine how the tragedy affected the community back then. A military parade will precede the Rosebank ceremony and will follow the route taken by the funeral cortege in 1915, leaving from the old drill hall in Dalmeny Street. We are hoping people will line the streets and, although the service is all ticketed, the public can watch the ceremony on big TV screens in Pilrig park.^
The service will be conducted by South Leith parish minister Iain May, 55, who discovered his great uncle Private John May died in the disaster while preparing for the event.
He said: ^I could not believe it when I saw his name among the roll call of the dead. A bit of digging revealed he was my uncle and the spitting image of my son. I^ve always been moved by the disaster but this year, the anniversary will have personal meaning.^
Alistair Stark, 66, whose great uncle Pipe Major James Gear perished, has flown in from Ontario, Canada.
James has a Royal Scots march on the pipes composed in his honour.
Former Canadian reserve soldier Alistair, who will march in the parade, said: ^James was 42 when he died. He had been told he was too old to join his former regiment the King^s Own Scottish Borderers so he joined the Leith territorials instead and ended up on the fateful train. I will march with great pride and honour in his memory next Saturday.^
Amy Biggers, 55, the grandaughter of Private John Biggers, has travelled from New Jersey for the centenary.
John survived the crash and the horrors of Gallipoli and went on to fly Bristol Fighters. His brother Martin also survived, having missed the train that morning.
Amy said: ^My grandfather would have been 19 when he boarded that train. He spoke often about the crash and remembered every detail as if it were yesterday. I can^t imagine such a devastating event ^ his friends were burned alive next to him and he only managed to escape by the skin of his teeth. He was a lucky man indeed. The Quintinshill disaster was really a double tragedy. First, there was the event itself then there was the loss of remembrance as the event was publicly minimised. This year, we will all gather together to bring respect and honour to those involved.^
Royal Scots soldiers who survived the crash load wounded men onto a hospital train at the disaster site
No enemy plot just a terrible mistakeBRITAIN'S War Cabinet at first feared the Quintinshill rail disaster was an act of sabotage.
Secret government documents released in 2012 show that David Lloyd George and his team considered suspicions that signalman George Meakin was a German sympathiser.
The rumours were never substantiated but Meakin was jailed for 18 months for his part in the crash.
Meakin had worked the night shift and was relieved by James Tinsley who started work half an hour late because he had been on the local train which stopped at Quintinshill.
Meakin had covered the extra half hour and recorded all the details of the delay on a piece of paper so that Tinsley could copy it into the train register.
Tragically, it is believed that while catching up with the paperwork, Tinsley had been distracted and forgot about the stationary local train and oncoming troop train.
A jury took just eight minutes to find both railmen guilty of culpable homicide due to gross neglect of their duties. Tinsley was jailed for three years.
George Meechan was jailed for 18 months for his part in the crash
TV history man charts the horrorA new
BBC» documentary includes a dramatic re-enactment of the disaster at Quintinshill.
Presenter Neil Oliver said: ^By 1915, the reality of the Great War was beginning to dawn.
^Military disasters were plaguing the government and the strain was starting to take its toll. Then, in May 1915, everybody got precisely what they didn^t want, another disaster.^
Colonel Robert Watson, of the Royal Scots, said many of the victims would have been boys as young as 15 who lied about their age to join up.
He added: ^They were worried the war was going to be over by Christmas and they would miss out.^
Quintinshill: Britain^s Deadliest Rail Disaster is on BBC2 on Wednesday at 9pm. 
