More details have been announced of commemorations on May 22/23rd 2015 marking the centenary of the Gretna train disaster.
The Princess Royal will attend events in Scotland remembering more than 200 soldiers who were killed on their way to fight at Gallipoli in 1915.
There will be a wreath laying and Act of Remembrance at Gretna on May 22nd, the 100th anniversary of the disaster.
Members of the Royal Scots Regimental Association will parade at Quintinshill siding, the scene of the crash between a troop train and two others.
Wreaths will be laid at the Memorial Cairn in Gretna itself.
Most of the 227 dead were territorial soldiers, serving with the Leith-based 7th Battalion, the Royal Scots.
They were travelling to Liverpool to board ship for the First World War campaign in Turkey when their train was involved in a head-on collision caused by signalling errors.
The focus for the commemorations on May 23rd will be Rosebank Cemetery in Edinburgh, where the soldiers were buried in a mass grave.
Serving soldiers and Royal Scots veterans will parade along the route taken by the funeral cortege in 1915 for a service at the memorial to the men.
The Princess Royal is Patron, The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment) Regimental Association.
Full details of the Gretna Centenary Commemorations can be found on the Royal Scots regimental website. Admission to Rosebank Cemetery is by ticket only. The remembrance service will be broadcast on big screen TV in Pilrig Park, directly opposite the cemetery.
More information about Scotland’s 2015 First World War Centenary programme is available here.
Sources: Buckingham Palace; Royal Scots Regimental Association; Pilrig St Paul’s Church
Images courtesy of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Posted by: Peter Alhadeff, Centenary News