For Leithers, May 22 1915 is arguably the most tragic day in recent history.
A train carrying half of the troops from the 7th Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment) Battalion collided head on with a passenger train just outside of Quintinshill, Dumfriesshire.
The incident resulted in 216 deaths and is to this day regarded as the worst British rail disaster ever.
READ MORE - Elusive Edinburgh neighbour leaves fuming note in tenement for 'despicable coward'
Out of a total of 498 soldiers from various ranks of the 7th Royal Scots travelling on the train, 216 died with a further 12 non servicemen also perishing.
Of the 216 dead, only 83 could be identified with 133 being so badly damaged in the incident that those rescuing them were unable to identify their bodies.
Only 62 members of the Battalion survived unscathed - with a handful of surviving officers actually continuing on to their deployment.
According to the Royal Scots website, at around 03:45am a train set off from Larbert Station outside of Falkirk with troops from Leith, Musselburgh and Portobello on board.
The men were heading off to Gallipoli to fight in the First World War and were being transported to Liverpool at the time of the crash.
The Royal Scots train is understood to have gone nose first into a local passenger train that had been allowed to park by controllers. It was facing north but on the southbound main line just north of Gretna - this was to allow an express train to overtake it.
Traditionally the local passenger train would have been put to one side in one of the loops at Quintinshill but both loops were already filled by commercial goods trains.
Once the two trains collided, the train carrying the brave troops to the front overturned onto the north-bound mainline track and around sixty seconds later a Glasgow bound express charged into the wreckage sparking a massive fire that essentially cremated those close to the fires.
Questions were raised after the incident as the fire was exacerbated by the fact the train carriages were extremely dated and made out of wood.
Alongside this, most of the carriages were lit by gas canisters that were stored beneath each carriage.
A report at the time of the incident stated: “The survivors at once got to work to help their stricken comrades and soon the whole neighbourhood was alarmed, and motor cars from near and far hastened to the spot with medical and other help.
“The kindness shown on all hands will never be forgotten, especially by the people from the surrounding area and Carlisle who gave such valuable assistance to the injured. Their hospitals were soon overflowing, but all who needed attention were quickly made as comfortable as possible.
“Their Majesties The King and Queen early sent their sympathy and gifts to the hospitals.”
The Royal Scots however could have potentially avoided the entire disaster.
They were a territorial battalion recruited mostly from Leith, which at the time of the Great War, was a separate Burgh from Edinburgh.
The group was used at the start of WW1 to man the coastal defences of the Forth, this was until April 1915.
They were then moved to just outside of Falkirk at Larbert where they were then supposed to be transported to the front line in France.
But a last minute change of plan saw the Battalion deployed to Gallipoli.
In another turn of bad luck, the soldiers were supposed to leave the day before but were delayed by the troopship Aquitania running aground in Liverpool.
It is understood that the tragic event had a profound impact on the people of Leith. It is said that not one single person in the Burgh of Leith was unaffected by the tragedy, with so many of the victims biding from the community.
On May 23 1915, 107 coffins were transported to Edinburgh and were placed in the Battalion’s Drill Hall on Dalmeny Street.
The following afternoon, 101 of the coffins were taken in a procession for burial in a mass grave that had been dug in Rosebank Cemetery, Pilrig Street.
A report at the time stated: “The route was lined by 3,150 soldiers [by comparison, the total figure on parade for Her Majesty’s Birthday Parade in London in 2013 was given as 1,000, including street liners], thousands of citizens stood shoulder to shoulder on the pavement; shops were closed, blinds drawn and the traffic stopped.”
An inquiry was launched just three days after the incident and both signalmen were found guilty of culpable homicide at the High Court of Edinburgh and were sent to prison, with one being sentenced to hard labour.
A memorial to the fallen soldiers and non-servicemen can be found in Rosebank Cemetery today after funds were raised to erect a monument in 1916.
