On the evening of 21st December 1988, a phone call was received at The Salvation Army (TSA) headquarters in Glasgow from the police service in Dumfries and Galloway. It broke the news of the crash of a plane on the town of Lockerbie. The call asked TSA to provide assistance to police and other emergency workers who were going to the site.

TSA responds to emergency situations in any part of the world where it is at work. Its response is intended to offer physical help and emotional support to the people who are affected by the disaster and will take whatever form is appropriate and practical. It is usually offered by officers who have other full-time appointments and by members and friends who offer their time and expertise freely. Soup kitchens and “farthing breakfasts” were opened in the East End of London in the 1870s and the principle has been followed in every succeeding generation in war and peace.

It was therefore to be expected that we would be invited to help when Pan Am flight 103 crashed. The response would be immediate and would last as long as we could meet people’s needs.

No indication of the size of the disaster was given. The news was passed to me because Lockerbie was part of the geographical area in which I was responsible for TSA activity. I was asked to get together a small team of officers who would be ready to go to Lockerbie immediately. A group of six met at the headquarters in Glasgow, picked up the emergency vehicle based there, and travelled the 100+ miles to the quiet market town in the southern uplands that was the site of the crash. Major John Flett, the financial secretary at HQ, was asked to join me in leading the team.

As we had no direct means of communication, Lieutenant Colonel Baird at Glasgow HQ was asked to let all the officers in Scotland know of the situation and to be the channel by which all offers of help would be made. We would find a way to ask for volunteers to join us when the size and nature of our help had been established.

Upon arrival in the town, the police welcomed our presence and told us of two sites where help was needed immediately. 

The first was in Sherwood Crescent, a cul-de-sac of bungalows and houses. The wings of the plane had torn through the crescent, destroying about half of the houses, leaving the rest untouched, killing 11 of the residents and creating a deep crater in which the bodies of some of the local people were later found. A team of workmen was already working on the crash site when we arrived because the smell of aviation fuel suggested that there might be an explosion. Residents had been asked to stay in their houses. Many were distressed. One teenage boy had been repairing his bike in the garage next to his house. When he opened the door, it was to find the house demolished and his parents and sister killed.

We parked the mobile canteen some distance from the crater and visited all the residents offering comfort and reassurance (and a cup of tea).

The second site was at Park Place, in the centre of the town. It was a row of terraced housing. A section of the fuselage of the plane had landed on the houses and remained there. It contained many bodies of the passengers and their luggage. Residents had been moved out but were faced with the sight of body parts, broken plane parts and Christmas toys which proved to be very disturbing. The group of officers sought to comfort them and were able to help them return to their homes when it was safe to do so.

We were told that the cockpit of the plane had crashed at Tundergarth, an open area just a couple of miles out of the town. The aircrew remains were there but because there were no other people there, we did not send anyone to that location until we had more help available.

I had asked John Flett to liaise with the police to establish the next phase of our response. The local authority had offered the large secondary school premises as a base and they gave TSA a section of the library with a telephone. This was important so that we could manage the reception and deployment of the large number of volunteers. Over 300 wanted to come to help us.

The sports centre of the school was designated as the temporary mortuary to which bodies and body parts were to be removed for identification and preparation. One of our main tasks was to choose a suitably experienced and sensitive officer who could be present to offer comfort to any relatives – mainly of local victims – who arrived at the site. 

The school dining facilities and changing rooms provided a base for the police and other emergency workers. At first, we thought that we could cater for the relatively small number of local police who we were the first responders. However, as the Dumfries and Galloway force was supported by much larger regional forces (such as the more distant Strathclyde Police), the numbers of officers greatly increased and the need for round the clock catering and accommodation became too large for us to manage. We were very grateful when the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS) took on this task. We agreed to continue to supply the police with toiletries and blankets, which we sourced from Carlisle by an officer there, who obtained them from local suppliers and brought them to us at the site.

A decision was made at government level to identify all the parts of the plane and to rebuild it. This was to aid investigation into the causes of the crash and its perpetrators.  Many fragments of the plane and its occupants landed not in the town but in the many miles of open countryside. Soldiers, many of them very young, were sent to scour the area and were told to stay with any item which may have come from the plane until it was identified and collected. This meant that they were out in the very cold country for some time watching over items which could have disturbed them. We sent a mobile canteen out to find them wherever they were and to offer food and drink while they waited. We wanted to report where we found them but mobile phones were not available, so we asked members of an amateur radio group to ride with our canteen and to report where we found the soldiers.  We greatly appreciated their support, but the scheme was only partially effective.

The size of the disaster and the number of people involved grew over the Christmas period. Many of our volunteers gave up their holidays to be with us and we had to limit the length of time they spent in the difficult work of counselling many people who were distressed. One elderly lady in Sherwood Crescent arrived at our mobile canteen carrying a large Christmas cake she had made for a family party which would no longer happen. She gave it to our team saying that she wanted everyone to remember that it was Christmas Day. Additional mobile canteen vehicles from Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Newcastle enabled a continual service to residents and emergency staff for a period of six weeks after the original disaster.

We became conscious of the stress suffered by all those working in Lockerbie. Local residents, police and other responders, our volunteers and particularly those who had lost relatives were beginning to experience what was described as post traumatic stress disorder. We deliberately limited the length of time our volunteers were allowed to remain on duty and selected only those able to cope with the situation.

We were unable to offer much help to the American relatives of those who had died in the crash, even though the airline provided free transport for some of them to come to Scotland. Police decisions did not permit them to visit the crash sites and they were angry about the exclusion of them from what they felt were reasonable requests. We did visit some of them in the hotel where they were based but did not feel we gave them the help they needed.

After a period of six weeks, the activity at Lockerbie was gradually reduced as the emergency workers completed their tasks. We reduced our involvement in the practical support which we had offered. Almost all our volunteers had travelled long distances to be part of the team and had to travel home after each shift was completed. 

The very first TSA officer to get to Lockerbie after the plane crash was Lieutenant Caroline Docherty, recently commissioned and in her first appointment to the small church and community centre at Annan, just 10 miles from Lockerbie. She joined the team and worked very hard in those first days. She made a room in her house in Annan available so that other participants could take a short break from the work.

It was part of Major Mary Elvin’s role to support and advise newly appointed officers in their early appointments. As the emergency teams completed their work in the town, Mrs Elvin suggested that Caroline should plan to spend a day each week in Lockerbie, to monitor the situation in the town. Caroline was warmly greeted when she arrived but was aware that high levels of stress were being shown by many people. She felt that more help was needed, so arrangements were made for Caroline and Mrs Elvin to meet in the town one day every week to offer continuing support and counsel to whoever wanted to make contact with them. 

Initially, these contacts were made in the car park and in the town centre but Father Patrick Keegans of the Catholic Church agreed that they could use a room in his building and placed a TSA crest there to let the townspeople know. A steady stream of visitors told them of nightmares because of the sights they had seen, of strained relationships, and of inability to function at work. We noticed similar symptoms among some of our volunteers and when the Strathclyde Police asked for help for some of their staff, we realised how deep the problem was. Some felt that they could only talk to someone who had been at Lockerbie and been a part of the recovery.

So, for a period of 18 months after the disaster, Mary Elvin made a round trip of 200 miles each week to join Caroline Docherty and attempt to deal with this stress. 

In 1992, Majors Mary and Derek Elvin were given a new appointment in London and were succeeded by Lieutenant Colonels Alex and Maureen Morrice. They felt compelled to follow up the work and to establish and develop the work of TSA in Lockerbie.

After leading a meeting in Annan, they went to Lockerbie just to walk around the town in their uniforms. They were warmly received by many people who acknowledged the valuable work done during the previous months since the disaster. One lady, a member of the Church of Scotland said she would love there to be an evangelical church in the town. To begin with they opened a charity shop, which was and is extremely successful.  It became a place where people came to tell their stories of the disaster. They then opened a permanent centre, appointing Captain and Mrs David and Barbara Kendal as leaders. The local MP, ministers and dignitaries attended the opening ceremony. Two TSA couples had moved to the district, from Hull and Carlisle, to help establish the centre. Today, the centre is doing well, continuing to serve the people of Lockerbie whatever their needs are.

There are very few written records of what TSA did at Lockerbie in 1988-90. Derek and Mary Elvin are recalling events which were etched into their memories. They have been unable to check them against many other colleagues who were involved. They believe them to be accurate and truthful but cannot guarantee them when writing after a period of 36 years.