Books Cumbria : History : Railways : Two Days in May: A story based on the Quintinshill Disaster

Two Days in May: A story based on the Quintinshill Disaster
David Clemson
£12.00

On 22 May 1915 three trains collided outside the signal box at Quintinshill near Gretna Green. A local commuter train known as the Parliamentary, a Scotch Express and a train carrying troops were those involved. Hundreds of people died or were injured. Most of the casualties were soldiers of the Royal Scots, on their way to Liverpool to board ship destined for Gallipoli.
This is a story of small acts of compassion and heroism by ordinary people who did all they could to help those hurt in the crash. Railwaymen, villagers from Gretna Green and passers-by all joined the rescue effort to save lives and comfort the wounded. Others placed duty above all and remained at their posts.

Two signalmen in the Quintinshill box had come to an arrangement to change their working hours. This scheme may have contributed to the causes of the disaster, though particular railway lines being busy and the late running of trains were factors too. The death toll remains the highest in any accident on British railways. Months later the Courts decided where the blame lay; but who had had their hand on the signal lever?

Publisher : Bookcase
Published : August 2019
Pages : 244p
Format : Paperback; 210 x 148mm
Illustrations : One black and white illustration
ISBN : 9781912181278

Two Days in May: A story based on the Quintinshill Disaster
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Review


The blurb on the back of this compelling work of historical fiction leaves you in no doubt about the awful tragedy that unfolds within its pages. The author – known to some for his skilful tutoring for many years on Angela Locke’s creative writing courses on Iona – weaves the grim facts of Britain’s worst railway disaster with imagined dialogues and invented relationships.
That 226 people – most of them soldiers destined for Gallipoli – died on May 21st 1915 when three trains collided is not widely known. Even David Clemson, whose father, a steam-engine driver, let him onto the footplate –“to absorb the wonderful smells of steam, smoke, coal and hot oil” – only got to know about this disaster on the Scottish border when he spotted a plaque commemorating it at the Gretna service station on the M6. Maybe the location – so far from national newspapers’ bases in London – and the competing news of slaughter in the World War One trenches, led to it being relatively overlooked.
The first chapter is headed with a time, the date, the setting and “12 hours 50 minutes before.” Succeeding chapters maintain the tension of impending disaster with a gradually reducing countdown to the first collision of trains. Thereafter the aftermath of the carnage, tortured metal, escaping steam, resulting fires, and the subsequent actions of railwaymen and the local public, are portrayed convincingly and with empathy and understanding.
The last chapters revolve around the investigation of the tragedy and the court trial and sentencing of those judged responsible.
Neil Wilson