Clapham rail crash: Survivors gather to remember

Updated
Clapham rail crash
Clapham rail crash

Clapham rail crash/


Survivors of the Clapham rail disaster in 1998 have marked on the anniversary of the tragedy by visiting the site of the accident. Source: Press Association.

Huddled against the cold and with heads bowed, a small congregation were at the scene the Clapham rail crash exactly 25 years after it claimed 35 lives.

It was at 8.13am on December 12 1988 that the devastating three-train collision happened close to Clapham Junction station in south London.

Today, at that exact same time, survivors observed a two-minute silence at the crash memorial site close to the scene of the accident.

One of those attending today was 71-year-old chartered accountant George Gillon, from London.

Travelling from Winchester in Hampshire, he had been in the third carriage of the London-bound Bournemouth train that was in the accident.

Standing by the memorial stone high above the railway line, Mr Gillon said: "I was one of the lucky ones. A number of my friends on that train were killed.

Others at the memorial service included those who lost loved ones in the disaster.

Linda Ship, 47, and her sister Diana O'Carroll, 44, travelled from Hampshire to remember their father Arthur Creek, 48, who was killed on the Bournemouth train.

Mrs Ship said: "Dad was a train driver and was in the train cab travelling to work as he knew the driver."

Another mourner was Romina Falcini, whose father Romano Falcini, 51, a banker, died in the crash.

With her were two of Mr Falcini's nieces, Nicola and Julia Falcini.

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