SIX LIVES LOST

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 70, 24 March 1931, Page 9

SIX LIVES LOST

ROYAL SCOT DISASTER

GIRL DIES IN HOSPITAL

A TITLED-..VICTIM

United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. .(Received 24th March, 10 a.m.) • LONDON, 23rd March. The actual death-roll in the Boyal Soot railway disaster becomes six with the demise in hospital on the first, day of her nineteenth year of Dorothy Lang, who was returning from a holiday in Italy. She was pinned for three hours under the wreckages, her head supported on her mother's knees. Oxygen was administered to both, who, though in agony, displayed great fortitude. The dining car attendant exhibited presence of mind, saving, many lives when ho rushed to the* kitchen and turned off the gas, preventing an explosion before he' leaped ofC the train. SIR GEORGE SALTMARSH. The dead include Sir George Saltmarsh, who had just-returned from Australia, where he-was engaged in an inquiry into wheat supplies. He intended only, a brief visit to. Glasgow. The body was not identified until an Automobile Association card bearing his club number was found in his pocket. . The task of obtaining the'names of the victims was completed amid fog at Leighton Buzzard station • early this morning, his son identifying Sir George Saltmarsh, who was going to the; Clyde to view the new phosphate steamer Triona shortly before she sailed for Nauru. Though a. thick fog hampered proceedings, rescue work continued throughout the night. One of the injured under the wreckage died. He fought hours for life, keeping up a running conversation through a breathing hole, and partaking occasionally of sips of brandy while the rescuers worked feverishly. ■ . THE ENGINE DRIVER. The dead engine-driver, Hudson, was one of the company 's most experienced drivers. Ho had driven the King and other royalties. Just before the depar-, ture, a passenger admiring the engine remarked that it was a wonder such a mammoth locomotive could keep the line. Hudson replied:""The faster we go, the firmer we hold the rails. 5' The station offices at Leighton Buzzard resemble a shop, owing to the presence of passengers' personal belongings awaiting claimants. ' .' •■ Both fast tracks were cleared by breakdown gangs, who fed the wreckage to a bonfire for light and warmth, while four 120-ton cr,yies juggled piles of debris into something approaching or-der,-waving the engine tender aloft as if it wore a toy. The work of clearing fifty yards of torn-ur> metals on the slow track is proceeding.' KING'S MESSAGE. The King has sent a message of sympathy to Sir Josiah Stamp, chairman of the London, Midland, and Scottish Railway Company. -