Lockerbie
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| Lockerbie | |
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| Logarbaidh (Gaelic) | |
| Lockerbie (Scots) | |
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| OS grid reference: | NY138816 |
| Population: | 4,009 (Census 2001) |
| Council area: | Dumfries & Galloway |
| Constituent country: | Scotland |
| Sovereign state: | United Kingdom |
| Police force: | Dumfries & Galloway Constabulary |
| Lieutenancy area: | Dumfries |
| Former county: | Dumfriesshire |
| Post town: | LOCKERBIE |
| Postal: | DG11 |
| Telephone: | 01576 |
| Scottish Parliament: | Dumfries (Dr. Elaine Murray, MSP) |
| UK Parliament: | Dumfriesshire, Clydeside & Tweeddale (David Mundell, MP) |
| European Parliament: | Scotland |
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Lockerbie (Scottish Gaelic: Logarbaidh) is a town located in the Dumfries and Galloway region of south-western Scotland. It is situated approximately 75 miles from Glasgow, and 20 miles from the English border. Lockerbie is a small town, with a population of just 4,009 at the 2001 census.
Lockerbie has a well developed transport network for a town its size. It lies next to the A74(M) motorway and also has a railway station on the main Glasgow–London West Coast Main Line. Lockerbie's town hall is the most dominating building in town, and is an excellent example of Scottish baronial style, built in the typical local red sandstone. The building looks over a war memorial built after the Second World War, with its characteristic bronze statue of an angel atop a white base with inscriptions.
Historically the town has been a trading post for both cattle and sheep. Because of its proximity to the borders, the cattle trade with England dominated local economy for a long time. The town is still home to sheep auctioning to this day.
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[edit] Lockerbie disaster
- Further information: Pan Am Flight 103
Lockerbie is known internationally as the site where, on December 21, 1988, the wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 landed. In the UK the event is usually called the Lockerbie disaster, bombing, or simply Lockerbie. Eleven townspeople were killed in Sherwood Crescent, where the plane's wings and fuel tanks crashed to earth in a fiery explosion, leaving a huge crater.
Until the September 11, 2001 attacks, the bombing of Flight 103 was the worst act of terrorism against civilian citizens of the United States. The 270 fatalities (259 on the plane, 11 in Lockerbie) were citizens of 21 nations. Of them, 189 were Americans.
The subsequent police investigation was the largest ever mounted in Scottish history and became a murder inquiry when evidence of a bomb was found. Two men accused of being Libyan intelligence agents were eventually charged in 1991 with planting the bomb. It took a further nine years to bring the accused to trial. Abdelbaset ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was jailed for life in January 2001 following the 84-day Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial under Scots law, at Camp Zeist, Netherlands. His co-accused, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, was acquitted, and returned to Libya. In March 2002, Megrahi's appeal against his conviction was rejected, and he remains in Greenock jail, near Glasgow.[1] Since September 2003, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission has been conducting a thorough and impartial review of Megrahi's conviction, and is expected to report its findings in 2007.
[edit] Lockerbie Academy
Lockerbie Academy, the town's public high school, became the headquarters for the response and recovery effort after the Pan Am Flight 103 disaster. Subsequently, the academy, in cooperation with Syracuse University of Syracuse, New York, USA, which lost 35 students in the bombing, established a scholarship at the university for two of its most outstanding graduating students. Each year, two graduating students spend one academic year at Syracuse University as Lockerbie Scholars before they begin their university study. The scholarships have led to a lasting relationship between the university and the town. The rector of Lockerbie Academy, Graham Herbert, was recognized in November 2003 at Syracuse University with the Chancellor's Medal for outstanding service.
A former student of the Academy, Helen Jones, was killed in the 7 July 2005 London bombings. In her memory, a new scholarship has been set up, awarding £1000 towards further education to aspiring accounting students from the Academy.[2]
[edit] Lockerbie Drama Club
Lockerbie has an active and enthusiastic Drama Club. It was originally formed before the Second World War by members of local churches and was known as Lockerbie Churches Drama Club and plays were perfomed in the town hall. In 1964 the club acquired land at the corner of Well Street and Well Road, along with a prefab corrugated iron building that had been a workshop in the Technical department at Lockerbie Academy. This building became the Little Theatre.
Lockerbie Drama club puts on two plays per year and holds play readings during the summer. The current President is Andrew Morton, who can be contacted through the club's website [1] or through his own. [2]
[edit] Trivia
On 22nd March 2007, Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain was banned from driving for six months and fined £500 after being found guilty of speeding on the M74 motorway near Lockerbie. He was clocked doing 116mph and pleaded guilty to the offence by letter.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- The Lockerbie Bombing and the USS Vincennes
- Lockerbie Trial Web Site of the UN-appointed observer Dr. Hans Köchler
