Disaster postcards fail to sell

Nov 12 2008

A set of postcards giving a chilling eyewitness account of one of Britain's worst football ground tragedies has failed to sell at auction.

The postcards were sent by a Glasgow student to his family in Germany, detailing the horrors of the Ibrox disaster of 1902. A total of 25 people plunged to their deaths and more than 500 were injured when part of a wooden terrace collapsed during a Scotland v England international at the Glasgow ground.

The postcards, written in ancient German script, were sent by a young man to his relatives in Hamburg on April 7, two days after the disaster. They were from a rare set published by William Lyon and feature illustrations of people playing table tennis and were originally bought by a fan of the sport. He had the German translated into English and discovered the connection with the disaster.