A WREATH was laid and a minute's silence observed in a ceremony at Larbert station yesterday to mark the anniversary of Britain's biggest rail disaster.

On May 22, 1915, 164 people died and 204 were injured at Quintinshill Siding, near Gretna, when a train carrying members of the 1st Battalion of the 7th Royal Scots from Larbert to Liverpool collided with the Carlisle to Glasgow train while it lay on the southbound line to allow the passage of the London to Glasgow sleeper.

Many of the soldiers, bound for the Dardanelles, were from the Stirlingshire area and following the accident were treated at a hospital set up in Falkirk Town Hall.