At 11.28pm on Saturday 15th June 1935, Wilson Bibby was arriving at the Cherry Tree restaurant in Welwyn Garden City (now the site of Waitrose) to take people home from a dance. Suddenly he heard a dull-sounding explosion, followed by a series of heavy grinding noises.

"I looked towards the station and saw a great red glare reflected in smoke and escaping steam. People came rushing out from the dance hall, many of them in evening dress to help shift the wreckage. They were met by a scene of horror, with dead and injured scattered along the track, and buried under tons of wreckage.

One of the most cool-headed workers was a woman, Dr Miall-Smith [subject of our previous article]. She had heard the fire alarm, was the first doctor on the scene, and worked all night to help the injured. We had to make improvised stretchers out of coach seats. Some of the people were terribly mutilated, and many of the rescuers were overcome with nausea. I saw a small black dog lying on one side of the track. Nearby was a bowler hat with a piece of wood sticking out of the dome. One of the most dreadful sights was that of a baby which had been crushed."

The crash was caused by human error: a signalman in the Welwyn box had mistakenly allowed two trains travelling north from King's Cross to enter the same section of track. The first, the 10.53 express to Newcastle, had been slowed by a signal and was leaving the station at 20mph; the second, which had started its journey at 10.58, ploughed into it at 50-60mph. The guard's van in the first train was pulverised, killing the guard and his dog instantly. The carriage in front of it was badly damaged but none of its occupants were seriously injured. The remaining nine carriages ahead were amazingly undamaged as they were modern with heavy duty couplings which kept them upright.

Above: A double page spread from The Illustrated London News reporting on the fatal collision at Welwyn Garden City on 15 June 1935 between two LNER trains, one from King's Cross to Leeds, the other from King's Cross to Newcastle. Picture courtesy Illustrated London News / Mary Evans Picture Library.

The first train was allowed to continue its journey after decoupling the damaged carriages. One of its passengers, Henry Robinson, had fallen asleep when it had left King's Cross and slept through the whole crash, only waking next morning and wondering where he was. The passengers in the second train were not so fortunate. Several of its carriages were of older design and were thrown off the track causing many casualties. The engine driver, Charles Barnes, survived because the locomotive was tremendously strong. It was able to move away under its own steam after the wreckage had been cleared the next day.

Fourteen people were killed, of all ages, in the crash. Several families suffered multiple losses: one poor man had to identify his mother, his wife, and their young son, who were among the dead. Twenty-nine people were seriously injured.

There were many acts of heroism that night, none more so than those of Dr Gladys Miall-Smith.

An enquiry found that the signalling system was poorly designed. It recommended changes which automatically prevented two trains being on the same section; this became known as the Welwyn Control and became a national standard. The jury at the ensuing inquest found the signalman not culpably negligent, and that the deaths were accidental.

In Iran, girls are protesting against discrimination by men. In 1921, a young lady doctor, Dr Gladys Miall-Smith, declined a request from her employer, St Pancras Borough Council, to resign as an assistant medical officer following her marriage to another doctor, Hubert Fry.

The council then voted by a large majority to dismiss her on the grounds that jobs should be reserved for people who needed the pay. Gladys did not go quietly and became a national figure. Her sacking was clearly absurd as she was a superb doctor.

Born in 1888, she qualified in 1916, was a surgeon in Great Ormond Street Hospital, served two tours of duty in field hospitals in France during the First World War, and then specialised in obstetrics and public health. She was invited to apply for posts across the country by more enlightened employers. Richard Reiss, a director of Welwyn Garden City Ltd and a friend of Hubert, was one. She and Hubert moved in 1922 to 18 Brockswood Lane and thence to 17 Valley Road.

Gladys worked as a GP during the week and Hubert took the role at weekends, as he was a pathologist during the week. There was no NHS then, so together with a third doctor they founded a Health Association. For a subscription of one penny a week per family, members could benefit from infant welfare clinics (run by Gladys), a district nurse, and reduced rates for treatment at local hospitals. The association won many national awards; in 1931 the Ministry of Health declared that the town had the highest standards of care in the country. The town's mortality rate was considerably lower than the national average. She knew all the key figures in the gestation of Welwyn Garden City, including Ebenezer Howard, whom she described as very quiet but determined.

Gladys carried on campaigning to improve the lot of women, being an active member of the women's Freedom League. Sadly Hubert died young in 1930, having acquired an infection while carrying out a postmortem. Gladys was left as a single mother with three young children.

She retired as a GP in 1950, when her children had grown up, but carried on practising at infant and school clinics. These were not only in England, she worked for two years in hospitals in Ghana, and also in Rhodesia and South Africa.

The last years of her life were spent in Elizabeth House, Panshanger. Gladys Miall-Smith died on January 3, 1991, aged 102. Perhaps because of her upbringing - her parents were both outspoken radicals and humanists - and her challenging life, Dr Miall-Smith was assertive and could be intimidating. One young patient remembers being frightened of her and hiding under the bedclothes when she visited.

Her long life of service and dedication to public health mark her out as an outstanding woman.

Many talented people were needed to build up Welwyn Garden City and one of the most creative was Tom Heron. In our previous article we described Cresta Silks, the company he founded. This time we are going to look at the man himself.

Tom was born in 1890 into a middle class family in Bradford where his father ran a business wholesaling fabrics. One of his teachers had tried to persuade his parents to let him try for a scholarship to Oxford University but they wanted him to go into the family firm, which he did at age 16, as an office boy. As a young man he came under the influence of many talented individuals in the Leeds Art Club. There he met artists such as Paul Nash, who many years later designed patterns for him, and Stanley Spencer. He was a patron of avant-garde art and active in progressive causes, supporting suffragettes and becoming a lifelong pacifist.

At that time one had to be at least 21 to run a business. On his 21st birthday, in February 1911, he went into business in Leeds on his own account, making blouses. This prospered despite the outbreak of war in 1914, eventually employing 200 people. He registered as a Conscientious Objector, and - unusually for a company owner - embraced socialism, joining the Fabian Society.

He met Eulalie Davies, daughter of a congregational Minister, who shared his beliefs; they were married in a Quaker Meeting House in September 1918. Their marriage lasted until Tom's death at age 93 in 1983. She died in 1986. They had four children: Patrick, famous artist; Michael, Benedictine monk; Joanna, who cared for them both in their final years in her home in Cumbria; and Giles, an organic farmer. After a spell in Crysede Silks in Cornwall, Tom looked for somewhere to start a new business. He had "watched the Garden City movement with interest since its inception and had always thought the idea a good one". Also "having as a young man had to catch a train at 7.30am a mile away from my home in order to reach my father's business thirty miles away, I decided that as soon as I could manage it I would live near my work". So he brought his family to Welwyn Garden City where he founded Cresta Silks in 1929.

Tom and Eulalie were both committed Christians, eventually settling down as active Anglicans in St Francis Church. His religious and political beliefs were put into practice in Cresta. Following in the footsteps of William Morris, he sought to create a company which generated profits but where profit was not the main goal. Staff were valued as individuals - many stayed for decades; quality was overarching, and creative artists were at the centre. An article in the Welwyn Times in 1933 recognised that Cresta had a wider purpose than most manufacturing concerns: "It believes not only that clothes express personality but that they actually affect the future of civilisation." Initially the Herons lived in a large house at 76 Brockswood Lane. In 1961, they moved to number 38 ("half the number and half the size") and in 1978 retired to Cumbria. Space does not allow a full account of this exceptional man, who was also a poet and a writer.

His son Giles with author John S Peart-Binns wrote a biography 'Rebel & Sage' in 2001 which is highly recommended.

An interesting way to spend half an hour in Welwyn Garden City is to take the Cresta Walk. Start at one of the Sectional buildings on Broadwater Road, such as occupied currently by Topps Tiles. These flexible units were built by the Welwyn Garden City Company in the 1920s to attract start-up companies.

One was taken in 1929 by Tom Heron, who wanted to create a business producing and marketing block printed silk garments for discerning women. He had started making blouses when only 21 in Leeds, then moved to Cornwall to work for Crysede, a leading designer of silks. He was successful there but felt he could do more.

Choosing Welwyn Garden because of its forward looking image - and because the Company provided essential funding - he set up Cresta Silks. Heron employed modern artists to design his products, including his young son Patrick, who went on to be an outstanding figure in British art. He chose modernist Wells Coates to design his retail shops, in London, Bournemouth and Brighton, which broke new ground. They attracted go-ahead women who wanted reasonably priced but stylish and well made clothes.

Cresta flourished. It moved in 1938 to a new building, our second stop, beside the railway station in the town centre, with a shop and factory behind. Heron had to conform to neo-Georgian styling because of planning restraints. It stood in splendid isolation on the corner of Howardsgate/ Stonehills. Now it is McDonald's, Stonehills has been narrowed and a matching building has been infilled.

Silk was hard to come by during the war so Cresta turned to wool. Heron helped his country by joining the Board of Trade to set up the Utility Clothing Scheme, which provided well-designed clothes at minimum cost. In 1951, with Heron looking to retire, the business was taken over by the Howardsgate Trust, which had been set up to facilitate disposal of the assets of the Welwyn Garden City Company when it had been wound up. In 1954 Cresta moved to Welwyn Stores, also owned by Howardsgate Trust.

Our walk concludes in the toy department of John Lewis. Imagine it full of machinists, working behind windows which were blacked out (and still are) because residents objected to seeing a factory on Parkway. Cresta continued successfully for some time but moved away from block printing. Debenhams bought it in 1957, moved it out of Welwyn Garden, then closed it in 1980.

Tom Heron was a remarkable man and an important citizen of Welwyn Garden. We will write more about him in our next article.

Russians attacking Ukraine have fired missiles with apparently little regard for civilian casualties. It puts the clock back to World War Two, when more civilians were killed than military personnel. WGC suffered bombing attacks being near Hatfield, where the de Havilland factory was manufacturing Mosquito aircraft.

Arthur and Dorothy Brown were downstairs in the kitchen of 61 Handside Lane on the evening of 26th September 1940 when a bomb fell in their front garden. Displaced soil came through the roof and crushed their bed. If they had retired early they would have been killed. Happily they only suffered minor injuries but their house was heavily damaged. As we mentioned in an earlier article, it and the adjoining number 63 had to be demolished.

Arthur made an important contribution to the look of Welwyn Garden City. He was born in 1889 and in 1920 was recruited from Rochester Row School of Arts and Crafts to work for the Welwyn Garden City Company doing lettering layouts. He had started his career as a letter cutter in stone, apprenticed to Eric Gill, but broadened his work to include calligraphy.

Arthur’s most obvious work was the first road signs for which he designed an alphabet using the Nuneaton script. He made large wooden letters and screwed them to a wooden backing to spell out a street name. From this a cast was taken and used as a mould at the foundry for molten metal. Some of these signs survive; later ones use a typeface called Kindersley, after its designer David Kindersley, who also was once apprenticed to Eric Gill.

A contemporary recalled: “You would see Arthur dangling his legs high up on a scaffold, lettering a huge board depicting the site of some factory which is probably a household name today. “He also helped to teach the early citizens good manners, with little cream and green boards warning ‘Please keep off the grass’.”

Arthur opened his own sign-writing business around 1933 in a hut at 28 Bridge Road and was a founder member of the WGC Craftworkers Guild.

He died of a heart condition on 20th July 1950. Dorothy outlived him by 31 years. Some of his road signs are with us still.