First World War relics uncovered at Glasgow Central Station

Tour guide and historian Paul Lyons shows some of the items on display.

A grim chapter in the story of Scotland's busiest station has been brought back to life with the discovery of a First World War stretcher and wheelchair in the bowels of Glasgow Central.

The century-old artefacts are remnants of the conflict when thousands of dead and wounded soldiers arrived home in Scotland from the front line.

Hundreds of bodies were temporarily stored in a makeshift mortuary beneath the platforms. Some families had the horrific task of having to search for their loved one’s remains among the corpses, laid out under heavy army blankets on stretchers like the one that has been found in a disused storeroom.

The wheelchair was discovered in a locked cupboard beside a long-derelict staff toilet.

Quintinshill rail disaster. Picture: Contributed

They will go on display at a museum being developed at Central to help tell the station’s 138-year-history.

Station historian Paul Lyons, who made the discoveries, said the chair had been adapted from a child’s pram by the Allwin company, reflecting the shortage of components because of the demand for wheelchairs. Others were fashioned from dining-room chairs.

Lyons said it was not known how many soldiers passed through Central during the war, but it was used by regiments including the Highland Light Infantry, Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders and the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.

He said: “It must have been a constant procession of folk. It was an absolute slaughter of men.”

An extract from Eric Bogle’s song No Man’s Land/The Green Fields Of France and a brass plaque are to be installed at the mortuary site to commemorate the contribution of the women in Glasgow, including caring for badly injured soldiers.