TODAY marks 25 years since the nation was horrified by the events of the Dunblane massacre.

On that infamous day on March 13 1996, lone gunman Thomas Hamilton took the lives of 16 children and their Lancashire-born teacher Gwen Mayor at Dunblane Primary School in Scotland.

Mrs Mayor, aged 45 from Great Harwood, was the only member of the school's staff to die that day, with the Gwen Mayor Memorial Trust having been founded in her name and in memory of her heroic actions.

On the day of the massacre, emergency service personnel said it appeared “as if she had been trying to shield youngsters from the gunfire.”

Mrs Mayor was shot by Hamilton after he entered the school gymnasium and randomly open fired on children and staff members.

A total of 32 people sustained gunshot wounds inflicted by Hamilton in just three to four minutes, 17 of those fatally.

16 died in the gym and one child died on the way to hospital.

Days after the attack, the gym was torn down and the Government met the £2 million of rebuilding it.

Disgraced former scoutmaster Hamilton took his own life after perpetrating the atrocity, with his motives never having been fully understood in the years since.

Mrs Mayor meanwhile left behind her husband, Rodney, and their two children Esther and Deborah.

She was posthumously awarded the Queen's Commendation for Bravery for her attempts to shield the children that day.

In the months and years afterwards the tragedy provoked a widespread debate about the use of guns in British society and ultimately helped to pave the way for the banning of handguns in 1997.

The Gwen Mayor Memorial Trust has funded a huge number of schemes aimed at enriching the educational and cultural life of children.

The trust's mission statement reads that its aim is "to advance education by providing financial support for projects in connection with the arts, culture, music or sport submitted to the trustees by primary schools or departments in Scotland.”

In 2019 the trust donated thousands of pounds to schools in the north east of Scotland with primary schools in Aberdeen and Orkney benefitting.

The year before, three other schools in Aberdeenshire received funding which they were able to use to buy musical instruments for children.

To find out more about the Gwen Mayor Memorial Trust, go to: https://www.eis.org.uk/mailings/gwenmayor.