Hibernian will pay respect to the 216 men from the 1st/7th (Leith) Battalion who lost their lives 100 years ago in the Quintinshill rail crash ahead of Saturday's play-off against Rangers.
On May 22, 1915, a train carrying 498 members of the 1/7th (Leith) Battalion, the Royal Scots, collided head-on with a passenger train parked at Quintinshill, north of Gretna.
The club are planning a piper’s lament in the build-up to kick-off, in tribute to all those who tragically died 100 years ago.
Tragically a total of 216 soldiers from the battalion died on the train which had been carrying soldiers to Liverpool to embark for Gallipoli. Leith was united in mourning the deaths of so many members of the local community.
Now a century on, Hibernian remember all those who sadly lost their lives and club representatives laid a wreath at Rosebank Cemetery, where most of those killed are buried in a mass grave, on Saturday morning.
Defender Liam Fontaine joined forces with piper, Lance Bombardier Hand, WO1 RSM Groves and Captain Tim Smalley at Easter Road to mark the tragedy – a century after it happened.
Leeann Dempster, the club’s chief executive, said it was important that Hibs played a part in the remembrance services.
Leeann said: “The majority of the young people on the train were from the Leith area, and a great many of them will have been Hibernian supporters or had strong connections to the Club. The impact on the community of Leith and further afield of the tragic events of that day was enormous, with so many families touched. It is right that we all join together to remember them.
“It is not fully known how many former Hibernian players were directly involved in the Quintinshill crash – some believe it may have been as many as eight - but we do know that the father and two uncles of Bobby Combe, who enjoyed a long and successful career with the Club in the 1940s and 50s, survived the tragedy.”
