Cromwell Lock: Memorial service held for 10 part-time soldiers who drowned

It is 47 years since the area was plunged into mourning for the lost lives after the members of 131 Independent Parachute Squadron, Royal Engineers, including two brothers, had set off on a weekend exercise to Nottinghamshire from where the majority never returned.

What should have seen them practise their watermanship, map reading and water navigation skills as part of Exercise Trent Chase quickly turned to tragedy.

In the early hours of September 28, 1975, during an 80-mile night navigation exercise on the River Trent and in extreme weather conditions, their boat tragically capsized after a power failure caused the navigation lights on the Cromwell Lock, known locally as Devil’s Cauldron, to go out.

Ten of the part-time squaddies drowned with only one – Sapper Pat Harkin – surviving by clinging on to the assault boat.

Those who died were Raymond Buchanan, Norman Bennett and Terry Smith, all aged 20; James Black and Alexander O’Brien, both 18; Ronald Temprell, 26; Joseph Walker, 21; brothers Stuart, 22, and Peter Evenden, 19; and the youngest victim Ian Mercer, aged only 17.

Although an inquest in 1976 did not assign any blame to Sapper Harkins, he never publicly spoke about the events, living quietly in his Denny home until his death in 2012.

A tribute to him on the Airborne Engineers Association (AEA) website said: “He carried a personal burden of responsibility for the rest of his life. 300 Troop members did their best to support him both before and after he retired from the Troop, and he was courageous enough to attend memorial events and other reunions.

"He was the same quiet self he had always been, and his burden was not always evident to those who had not known him before that sad event. The same rugged determination, so evident in the new recruit, both saved his life and then carried him through the remainder of it.

“Pat Harkin is remembered with both respect and sympathy.”

In the days following the tragic events on the River Trent, towns across the district came to a standstill as the funerals of the young, part-time soldiers took place. People filled the streets to pay their respects as the coffins, some on army vehicles, were driven to and from the services.

A memorial stone to the ten was erected in Grangemouth’s Zetland Park, close to the town’s cenotaph.

There is also a memorial garden at Cromwell Lock with a block of Scottish granite bearing the names of the men who died and they are also commemorated at The National Arboretum in Staffordshire.

For years the AEA has organised a memorial service on the Sunday closest to the date of the tragedy.

At the weekend members of the organisation, along with representatives of British Legion Scotland, former comrades-in-arms, veterans and family members of those who died, gathered at the memorial to pay their own tribute.