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quintinshill rail disaster
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C . R . TRA I N REG I STER
THE QUINTINSHILL CRASH SURVIVORS
The seven Officers and 55 Other Rank uninjured survivors from the
Quintinshill crash, under Lieutenant Colonel William Peebles, the
Commanding Officer, reached Carlisle by train at about 5pm on the
Saturday and marched through crowded, cheering streets to Carlisle Castle,
the military depot in the town. There they had a wash, were given a meal
and medical examination and ordered to rest. At 2am they were woken,
returned to the station and set off for Liverpool.
On arrival in Liverpool, after some delay,during which the survivors were
amazingly, after what they had been through, used as a work detail at the
station, the party eventually joined B and C Companies on HMT Empress
of Britain.
Later that Sunday morning, however, the War Office ordered that the
55 Other Ranks under an Officer, Lieutenant Bell, should return to
Edinburgh.
The party marched back to the station during the course of which
it is reported that they were stoned by some street urchins who, because of
their untidy appearance, thought they were German prisoners of war.
They reached Edinburgh that evening and were taken to Craigleith
Hospital for the night. The following afternoon, Monday, they paraded for
the funeral of their comrades before going on leave for two weeks. They,
together with those who had recovered from their injuries, subsequently
rejoined the Battalion as reinforcements in Gallipoli on 13August.
HMT Empress of Britain sailed forAlexandria on the evening of Sunday
23 May, arriving there on 3 June. After five days ashore, the Battalion
re-embarked and sailed for the Island of Lemnos, south-west of the
Gallipoli Peninsula on 11 June, sailing to the Peninsula,by small cargo ship,
the next day.