First World War Commemoration

Mark Lazarowicz Excerpts

Thursday 7th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mark Lazarowicz (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab/Co-op)]

On the morning of 22 May 1915, 227 people were killed in what is still Britain’s worst rail disaster when a troop train and two other passenger trains collided at Quintinshill near Gretna. Almost all those who died were men from the Leith Battalion of the Royal Scots, who were killed before even reaching the battlefields of Gallipoli that they were heading for on their first posting after training. The vast majority of those who were killed were obviously from Edinburgh and Leith. Of course, in the time before and after hundreds more from the community of Edinburgh died in various battlefields and at sea, but the impact of that rail disaster, because it had such a dramatic effect on one day on people who did not even get to Gallipoli, where they had been expecting to fight, was both dramatic and traumatic.

The disaster is now remembered every year on its anniversary at a war memorial in a cemetery in the centre of my constituency. At one of those commemorations a few years ago I met a grandchild, the great-grandchildren and the great-great-grandchildren of a victim of that disaster who were pleased that the local community was now remembering their ancestor. I am glad to say that the Quintinshill disaster is recognised by both the UK and Scottish Governments as one of the Scottish national events to be remembered in the commemorations of world war one. It reminds us that the way in which the war impacted on individuals and communities was not just at the front and at sea but in places a long way from the battlefield and in ways that we do not always appreciate.

The bodies of those who died in that disaster were brought back to the Drill hall in Leith. That building is now the Out of the Blue centre, a successful arts and cultural centre. Appropriately, in that very building a couple of months ago, I was privileged to take part in the launch of one of the community projects funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. It was a project organised by the Disability History Scotland group, which aims to look at how the experience of disability caused directly or indirectly by world war one had consequences for families and communities, for social policy, disability groups and disability rights campaigns for generations until now.

That is again a reminder of how the consequences of war extend far beyond its original participants in all sorts of ways and down the decades. Besides the project that I mentioned, I know that others in my community have sought, and I hope received, funding from the HLF. I have encouraged them to do so and I hope that the publicity about today’s debate will encourage other groups to come forward with projects for their community.

Another ceremony that has recently been revived is at the war memorial at Newhaven village in my constituency, a fishing village in the past and a very small fishing community now. It takes place every year at the war memorial attached to the local school. It brings together the wider community and the young people at the school to remember what their forefathers fought for in the first world war. It is an opportunity to remind young people of what happened at that time and to look, as many colleagues have said, at reconciliation and work for peace so that future generations will not have to go through what so many went through in the first world war.