1967:
Mortonhall crematorium opens. The practice of telling parents there are no ashes from cremated babies persists for decades.
May 2011: A new bereavement services manager, Charlie Holt, takes over. He challenges the long-standing presumption at the crematorium that there are no ashes from baby remains. A metal tray to contain the ashes of the baby is reintroduced, with positive results.
Oct 2012: Lesley Winton, commissioned by Sands Lothian to write a book to explain its work, learns that parents had received their babies' ashes from the privately run Seafield and Warriston crematoriums in Edinburgh while other parents, whose babies were cremated at the council-run Mortonhall, had not.
Oct 2012: Dorothy Maitland, operations manager at Sands and a parent whose baby daughter was cremated at Mortonhall in 1986, meets Mr Holt who tells her he had "changed things" so parents could receive remains of their children. Ms Maitland, who had been told there were no remains of her baby daughter, Kaelen, is informed records indicate they were in fact interred in the Garden of Rest at Mortonhall.
Dec 5, 2012: Allegations that ashes of miscarried, stillborn and neonatal babies were "cruelly dumped in a mass unmarked grave at a city crematorium" are reported in the media. The council issues an apology.
Dec 10, 2012: City of Edinburgh Council launches its own inquiry, led by senior officer Mike Rosendale.
Jan 2013: Mr Rosendale's limited fact-finding investigation is completed and it is acknowledged that an independent person should head a more in-depth probe. Dame Elish Angiolini is appointed to carry out the probe into the practices at Mortonhall Crematorium.
Apr 2013: The inquiry begins following a delay caused by a police probe. A BBC documentary identifies apparent inconsistencies in practices in crematoriums.
May 2013: The Infant Cremation Commission, set up by the Scottish Government and headed by Lord Bonomy, begins work. It is charged with reviewing policies, guidance, practice and legislation in Scotland in relation to the handling of all recoverable remains following the cremation of babies and infants.
Apr 14, 2014: The report is delivered to the council. The authority is criticised for not publishing it immediately.
Apr 30, 2014: Dame Angiolini's report is published and copies are couriered to affected families. Over the course of her inquiry, the number of cases grew from 130 at the outset to 253.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article