Dear Editor
As a schoolboy, which was not yesterday, I undertook work experience at the National Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh in a building on Queen Street that now functions as serviced apartments
My task was to catalogue pictures relating to an event which, to my shame, I had never heard of – the Quintinhsill Rail Disaster.
Taking place on 22nd May 1915, at the height of the First World War, the event occurred at the Quintinshill signal box near Gretna Green and remains the worst rail disaster in British history. A train packed with nearly 500 members of the Leith Battalion of the Royal Scots travelling from Larbert collided with a local passenger service at Quintinshill.
Straight afterwards, a Glasgow-bound express train smashed into the wreckage at Quintinshill, setting off a devastating fire which engulfed the troop train. In total, around 226 people were killed (215 of whom were soldiers) and a further 246 people were injured.
Some bodies were never recovered, having been wholly consumed by the fire, and when the bodies of the men of the Royal Scots were returned to Leith, where they were buried together in a mass grave in Rosebank Cemetery.
As we mark the 110th anniversary of this disaster, it is heartening to see continued recognition of this event, including a new exhibition at the Drill Hall in Dalmeny Street, Leith.
Yours faithfully
Alex Orr
Marchmont Road
