The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Broughty poet’s disaster tributes given to museum
Lost poetry lamenting Elliot rail disaster found during house clearance
A series of poems written by a Tayside woman commemorating an Angus rail disaster has been uncovered after more than a century.
The Elliot rail disaster of 1906 shocked the nation as 22 people died following the collision between an Edinburgh-bound express train and a stationary local engine.
Broughty Ferry woman and “wellknown local poetess” Agnes Gilruth Pringle wrote a series of four occasional verses on the disaster, the arrest of driver George Gourlay, his trial, and his release from prison in 1907.
Known for her “simple and pleasing verse on passing events” according to The Courier in 1936, Mrs Pringle lived at 341 Brook Street and died in 1973 aged 94.
She was acknowledged by Buckingham Palace for a poem of sympathy to King Edward following the death of King George in 1936. The new monarch was “much touched by the sentiments they contained”.
A Letham family recently found a framed collection of pieces printed in The Courier during a house clearance and donated the set to the Signal Tower Museum in Arbroath yesterday.
Michael McEwan said he was pleased the poems “would find a good home” after they were found tucked away among family effects.
Museum officer Kirsten Couper said: “The inquiry into the accident found that the mistakes were made due to the adverse weather but driver error was also cited. It seems the poems were popular particularly in Arbroath and served as a social commentary of events relating to the crash.
“Today there is a group locally hoping to ensure a memorial plaque is mounted near the scene of the accident to mark the event and the lives that were lost.”