The Royal Scots Regimental Museum’s annual outreach exhibition opened at Out of the Blue this morning. Depute Lord Provost Cllr Lezley Cameron (right) helped launch the event.
This year’s exhibition focuses on the Quintinshill rail disaster of 22 May 1915, in which 227 people died including 216 officers and soldiers of the 1st/7th (Leith Battalion) on their way to the Gallipoli campaign.
As many readers know, the venue on Dalmeny Street was the Batallion’s Drill Hall at the time, and it was here that most of the bodies were brought before burial in Rosebank Cemetery.
Pictured below is Robin Bell, whose father John (Ian) survived the accident and subsequent campaigns in Gallipoli, Egypt, Palestine and the Western Front.
Speaking to the Spurtle, he recounted how John Bell escaped death in the Gretna crash thanks to his chance decision not to join fellow officers in a game of cards in the next compartment.
He and other veterans attending the event spoke not only of the tragedy attending so many young men’s simultaneous deaths, but the catastrophic effects on the families of those Leith, Portobello and Musselburgh loved ones left behind. A short film – Leith's Darkest Dawn – is available on YouTube here.
The exhibition – featuring many touching personal stories as well as regimental history and curios – runs until Saturday 24 May, 10am–4pm. Entry is free.
For coverage of the 2015 Quintinshill commemoration ceremony, go here and here.
