TWO grandchildren of First World War poet Siegfried Sassoon were among the six young victims of a head-on car smash, it emerged last night.
The six friends died on the A361 in Somerset at the weekend while returning from a night out at a pop festival.
The victims, four men and two women, were all found trapped inside the wreckage of a Ford Fiesta.
Mr George Sassoon, the poet's son, was said to be devastated after police told him the dead included his son Tom, 18, and daughter Isobel, 22. It was understood he was at his home on the Isle of Mull when he was told.
His children were with friends, all aged 18 to 25, returning from the festival when their car swerved across the road and hit an oncoming Transit van.
Their blue and silver Fiesta spun round, mounted a grass verge and struck two male pedestrians.
One of the two was so seriously hurt he was airlifted to Frenchay hospital in Bristol. His condition was described as ``critical''.
The victims had been at the One World Festival in a field at Nunnery Catch, near Frome in Somerset.
Tom, an actor, was to join the Bristol Old Vic theatre school next month. Isobel was the manager of a service station. It is thought her boyfriend died with her.
The children lived with their mother Susie, who was divorced from electrical engineer George, 60.
His father Siegfried, who died in 1967, fought as an infantry officer in the Royal Welch Fusiliers in Flanders. His bleak picture of life in the trenches made him one of the Great War's most famous poets.
Accident investigators are trying to solve the mystery of what caused the car driver to lose control on a long curving stretch about three miles from Frome in good weather.
All the accident victims have been identified, said police. They are expected to be named later this morning.
The second pedestrian injured by the spinning car was taken by ambulance to the Royal United Hospital, Bath. He was detained along with a man and woman who were in the van.
Four bouquets of flowers were laid on the grass verge at the crash scene yesterday, where a sobbing couple stood hand in hand for a brief moment.
The tragedy has blighted the bustling market town of Frome. It was busy preparing for its annual carnival in a few weeks and chose its carnival queen, Mrs Alison Edney, only on Saturday.
Emergency services were quickly on the scene and firemen had to cut into the wreckage to free the dead and injured.
The tragedy has blighted what should have been a happy time for the otherwise bustling market town. Frome was busy preparing for its annual carnival in a few weeks' time and chose its carnival queen, Mrs Alison Edney, only yesterday.
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