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Lockerbie Town Hall, 2006.

Lockerbie (Scottish Gaelic: Logarbaidh) is a town located in the Dumfries and Galloway region of south-western Scotland. It is situated approximately 75 miles from Glasgow, and 20 miles from the English border. Lockerbie is a small town, with a population of just 4,009 at the 2001 census.

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 on the main Glasgow–London West Coast Main Line. 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 with 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.

On the southern outskirts of the town (approximately 3 miles from Lockerbie along the C92 (a) road to Dalton) is the remains of a 2nd World War POW camp. This was the base for about 500 Ukrainians who were moved here after the war. These men were volunteer members of the Galizien SS^{[citation needed]} and built a chapel which remains and presently holds Ukrainian services to this day on the first Sunday of every alternate month.

Lockerbie war memorial, "Tower" chip shop, and town hall, 2006.

Further information: Pan Am Flight 103

Lockerbie is known internationally as the site where, on December 21, 1988, the wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 crash landed as a result of a terrorist bomb. In the UK the event is referred to as the Lockerbie disaster, the Lockerbie bombing, or simply Lockerbie. Eleven townspeople were killed in Sherwood Crescent, where the plane's wings and fuel tanks plummeted in a fiery explosion, leaving a huge crater. The 270 fatalities (259 on the plane, 11 in Lockerbie) were citizens of 21 nations. Of them, 189 were Americans.

The subsequent police investigation was the largest ever mounted in Scottish history and became a murder inquiry when evidence of a bomb was found. Two men accused of being Libyan intelligence agents were eventually charged in 1991 with planting the bomb. It took a further nine years to bring the accused to trial. Abdelbaset ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was jailed for life in January 2001 following the 84-day Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial under Scots law, at Camp Zeist, Netherlands. His co-accused, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, was acquitted, and returned to Libya. In March 2002, Megrahi's appeal against his conviction was rejected, and he remains in Greenock jail, near Glasgow.^[1] In September 2003, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission started a review of Megrahi's case, and granted him a second appeal on June 28, 2007 against his conviction for the Lockerbie bombing.^[2]

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 recognised in November 2003 at Syracuse University with the Chancellor's Medal for outstanding service.

A former student of the Academy, Helen Jones, was killed in the 7 July 2005 London bombings. In her memory, a new scholarship has been set up, awarding £1000 towards further education to aspiring accounting students from the Academy.^[3]

Lockerbie Drama Club was formed before the Second World War by members of local churches. Originally known as Lockerbie Churches Drama Club, plays were performed in the town hall. In 1964 the club acquired land at the corner of Well Street and Well Road, along with a prefab corrugated iron building that had been a workshop in the Technical department at Lockerbie Academy. This building became the Little Theatre. Lockerbie Drama Club puts on two plays per year and holds play readings during the summer. ^[4]

1. ^ BBC's "on this day" website
2. ^ SCCRC's decision on Megrahi's second appeal against conviction
3. ^ Helen Jones' scholarship
4. ^ Lockerbie Drama Club

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Lockerbie

• Lockerbie Trial Web Site of the UN-appointed observer Dr. Hans Köchler
• A List of the Lockerbie Scholars at Syracuse University
• VisitScotand entry for the Ukrainian POW Chapel

Coordinates: 55°07′N, 3°21′W