There will be a minute’s silence prior to kick off at Easter Road today to remember those who lost their lives in the Quintinshill Rail Disaster.
A lone piper will play Flowers of the Forest in their memory.
On 22 May 1915 a troop train carrying members of the Royal Scots (Leith Battalion) to Liverpool to embark for Gallipoli crashed into a passenger service which was stationary on the main line near the border between Scotland and England at Quintinshill (Gretna)..
Just over a minute later, an express train travelling north crashed into the wreckage of the first crash which resulted in the death of 216 men with a further 220 injured due to the ensuing fire.
Most of the dead and injured came from Leith, Portobello and Musselburgh. All of the deceased were buried in a communal grave in Rosebank cemetery.
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
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
