Sunday 4 February 2024 will mark the 50thAnniversary of the M62 coach bombing which saw 12 people lose their life and 38injured.
The coach containing military personnel and their families was returning to bases in Catterick and Darlington following weekend leave. It departed Manchester late in the evening on Sunday 3 February 1974when just after midnight the explosion happened between Junction 26 and 27 of the M62.
Of the 12 killed, 9 were soldiers of 2ndBattalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, Royal Artillery and Royal Corps of Signals.
4 Fusiliers were killed including LCPL James McShane, Fusilier Jack Hynes, Fusilier Stephen Whalley and Corporal Clifford Haughton. Sadly Linda, Clifford’s wife and two children Lee and Robert were also killed in the incident.
The event is remembered every year by the regiment and the families involved. To mark the 50th anniversary there will be an extended parade, special memorial service and wreath laying ceremony at Hartshead Moor Services (Westbound) in the memorial garden. Family members, representatives from all regiments and VIP’s will all be in attendance to pay tribute to the fallen.
The memorial stone for the victims was funded by the charity Life for a Life and unveiled on 4 Feb 2019. They also planted an English Oak Tree on the same day to act as a living memorial for all to see in years to come.
Col James Denny, Regimental Secretary said “The 50th anniversary will be a significant milestone especially for the families, so we intend to come together as we always do to remember and pay tribute to those who were killed or injured on that fateful day.”
The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, known as ‘The Fusiliers’, is an English infantry Regiment in the British Army, formed from four historic Fusilier Regiments in1968. Since then, the Fusiliers have seen service across the world in Northern Ireland, Cyprus, the Balkans, the 1st and 2nd Gulf Wars and Afghanistan. The Regiment has two battalions – First Fusiliers in Tidworth and Fifth Fusiliers in Newcastle – and both adapt readily to challenging scenarios.
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