Lockerbie
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Lockerbie is a small town with a population of 4,009 (Census 2001) located in the Dumfries and Galloway region in south-western Scotland. It is approximately 75 miles from Glasgow, and 20 miles from the English border.
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. 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 bith 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.
Lockerbie Disaster
- See Pan Am Flight 103 for more details
Lockerbie is best known internationally as the site where, on December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over town as a result of a terrorist bomb. In the British Isles the event is usually called the Lockerbie disaster, bombing, or simply "Lockerbie." Eleven townspeople were killed in Sherwood Crescent, where one of 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 the United States. The 270 victims (259 on the plane, 11 on the ground) were citizens of 21 nations. Of them, 189 were Americans.
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.