At around 6:49am on the 22 May 1915, a fully-loaded troop train was passing close to Gretna Green in Scotland. The train was bound for Liverpool, where its passengers – mostly soldiers of the 7th battalion of the Royal Scots – would be loaded onto ships and sent onwards to Gallipoli, where they expected to encounter challenging conditions, and fierce fighting against Ottoman forces. Little did the men on board realise, however, that the vast majority of them would never make it beyond Gretna Green. The train on which they travelled was about to become part of one of the worst rail disasters of all time.