IN Westminster Abbey, they gathered yesterday to pay tribute to the 270 people who died in the Lockerbie bombing, 25 years to the day since the atrocity occurred.
Families ripped apart by the tragedy were joined by senior politicians to remember those killed in the worst terrorist act over British soil.
The poignant wreath-laying ceremony was timed to coincide with the moment the bomb exploded on board Pan Am Flight 103, shortly after 7pm on December 21, 1988.
Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael joined victims' campaigner Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter died in the disaster, in London last night.
In the United States, a service of "hope and remembrance" took place at the Hendricks Chapel of Syracuse University in New York state, which lost 35 students who had been studying at its London campus. The service was followed by a procession to its Wall of Remembrance.
A scholarship scheme was set up between Lockerbie Academy and Syracuse University after the bombing. Claire Dorrance, a student who took part in the scheme in 2012-13, gave an address at the service. Her father, Sergeant Colin Dorrance, was one of the first police officers to arrive in the town the night of the bombing (see Lockerbie Voices, right). She said: "The 270 people who died are still such a force of good in this world."
A service also took place at the Arlington National Cemetery in Washington DC, which was attended by Scotland Office Minister David Mundell. He read out a message on behalf of the Prime Minister.
"For the fortitude and resilience you have shown. For your determination never to give up. You have shown that terrorist acts cannot crush the human spirit," he said. "That is why terrorism will never prevail."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article