William Gillanders was the husband of M. A. Gillanders, of 1, Rugby St., Christchurch, New Zealand.

Ten privates, serving in the 1NZEF (28th Reinforcements) were killed in Bere Ferrers Railway Station while getting out of the Troop Train on September 24 1917. They had just landed at Plymouth and were on their way to join their comrades on Salisbury Plain for preliminary training.

The accident happened when a trainful of NZ troops who had just arrived in the country left Friary Station, Plymouth at 3pm. At 3.50 the train approached Bere Ferrers. The soldiers were raw, sick, tired and above all hungry, having eaten breakfast at 6am. They had been told that food would be provided on the journey. The arrangement was that when the train made its first stop at Exeter, two men from each carriage would carry provisions from the brake-van together with cups of tea and buns provided by the Mayoress' Comforts Fund. When the train made an unscheduled stop at Bere Ferrers, men in the rear section of the train decided that this must be Exeter, and breaking the rule of two from each carriage, jumped down. Some of them spilled onto the down-line track, just as the Waterloo -to- Plymouth Express rounded the sharp curve on its entry into Bere Ferrers. Although the fireman shouted a warning, and the train driver applied the brakes, the train pulled up about 400m beyond the station. Nine soldiers died instantly and another died the following morning in Tavistock Hospital. The inquest revealed that the men had got out of the train in the wrong side simply because they had assumed the door of entry was the correct door to exit by. Information was supplied by Mrs Kyle (England). AWMM