IT WAS one of the worst civilian catastrophes of Victorian times, but, until now, the Tay Bridge disaster has only been commemorated in the verse of William Topaz McGonagall – the "poet and tragedian" often ridiculed as the world's worst wordsmith. But yesterday it was revealed that a permanent memorial is to be built to the 75 men, women and children who died when the storm lashed rail bridge over the Tay collapsed in December 1879.

A memorial fund group chaired by Fife aristocrat Stuart Morris, the son of the Laird of Balgonie, whose great-great-great grandmother died in the tragedy, has been established to raise money for the project. The main monument is planned for the quayside at Dundee, with a smaller one to be built at the opposite side of the river near Wormit. The scheme has already won the support of community councils in Wormit, Tayport and Dundee and the Tay Valley Family History Society.

One of Scotland's worst rail tragedies, the Tay Rail Bridge Disaster, is to be commemorated with a permanent memorial to the 75 people killed when the bridge collapsed. Today, a Tay Bridge Disaster memorial fund is being launched to raise cash for the memorial - exactly 131 years since the bridge collapsed, plunging the train and its passengers into Scotland's biggest river.

Descendants of some of the victims will gather at the McManus art gallery and museum in Dundee along with civic representatives of Angus, Dundee, and Fife, to launch the campaign. The only reminder of the tragedy at the site are some of the stumps of the original bridge pier - which are visible in the water even at high tide.

The train driver who died in the Tay Bridge disaster is to be commemorated more than 130 years after the tragedy. An inscribed headstone will be placed on the previously unmarked grave of David Mitchell at Leslie Cemetery in Fife. He perished along with 74 others when the train he was driving went into the River Tay on a stormy night in 1879.

The disaster happened after the centre section of the bridge, known as the "High Girders", collapsed. A later inquiry into the disaster revealed that the bridge had not been designed to withstand high winds.

David Mitchell's body was eventually washed ashore and buried in an unmarked grave. However, the inscribed headstone will be dedicated in his memory at a special ceremony later, which will be attended by his great grandson and his great great grandson.

At the time of the disaster, the Tay Bridge was the longest in the world and had been given the royal seal of approval by Queen Victoria, but it stood for less than two years.