AS DUNBLANE marked the first anniversary of the murder of 16 children and their teacher privately yesterday, there was no official ceremony. Instead, the small cemetery was closed to the public and the grieving parents laid flowers in the primary school's garden of remembrance.
The families, who had appealed for the media to allow them the privacy to mourn, left individual bouquets on the site of the gym, which has since been demolished, exactly a year to the hour after Thomas Hamilton committed Britain's worst mass murder.
The primary school was closed for 90 minutes to allow the families to grieve in peace and nearly 100 of the school's 430 pupils chose to stay at home to mark the anniversary. The headmaster, Mr Ron Taylor, said many of the children were "shocked and stunned and emotionally tired" by the tragedy.
"Our school will recover. It hardly seems a year to us at the school. The events of that day, clearly the worst of our lives, are still with us. The images are very vivid. I have a very vivid, visual memory. The trauma and emotion have not left us," he said.
Instead of a formal ceremony to mark the anniversary, the parents asked the public to light a candle in the windows of their homes at 7 p.m. Seventeen candles burnt throughout the day at Dunblane Cathedral. Flowers and messages of sympathy were sent to the town from around the world.
"There is a sense of relief amongst townspeople that another hurdle has been crossed, but I don't think the parents feel the same. Their emotions are vastly more complicated," said the Rev Moira Herkes of Dunblane Cathedral.
The British Prime Minister, Mr Major and the Labour leader, Mr Tony Blair, also chose to forget their political differences to remember those who had died. Mr Blair told a sombre House of Commons the "terrible" massacre at Dunblane will never be forgotten.
"We remember the little ones that died, we grieve with their parents and their friends and they will not be lost in the memory of this nation."
Mr Major recalled their visit to the primary school and the gymnasium, and said he did not believe "we will ever forget the scenes we saw there". Describing the anniversary as a "very difficult and emotional time" for the whole community, he added that the entire nation was thinking of them.