About 1,000 people, including descendants of those who died, have attended a service to commemorate Britain's worst rail disaster.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Princess Anne were among those gathered at Rosebank Cemetery in Edinburgh to remember the people who perished in the Quintinshill crash, near Gretna on the border, 100 years ago.
The disaster claimed the lives of more than 200 troops, most of whom came from the Leith, Portobello and Musselburgh areas surrounding the Scottish capital. The troops were on their way to Liverpool, where they were due to sail to the frontline of the war in Gallipoli.
Several of the relatives of those who died had travelled from overseas to attend the service at the place where many of the soldiers are now buried.
It was early in the morning of May 22 1915 when a train packed with First World War troops travelling from Larbert, Stirlingshire, collided with a local passenger service.
A Glasgow-bound express train then smashed into the wreckage at the Quintinshill signal box, setting off a devastating fire which engulfed the troop train, packed with nearly 500 members of the Leith Battalion of the Royal Scots.
At least 214 soldiers of all ranks and 12 civilians were killed. Another 246 people were injured.
Royalty, politicians, military veterans and relatives of the victims also marked the anniversary with a special service in Gretna 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