Tuesday 4th December 1951
The Gillingham bus disaster occurred, when a double-decker bus belonging to the Chatham & District Traction Company ploughed into a company of fifty-two young members of the Royal Marine Volunteer Cadet Corps, aged between ten and thirteen, in Gillingham, Kent, England. Twenty-four died and another eighteen were injured. At the time it was the highest loss of life in any road accident in British history.