Dunblane: Sir Andy Murray and the tragedy that runs deep
Sir Andy Murray was in class on the day the UK’s worst mass shooting unfolded in his school
Although he rarely talks about it, Sir Andy Murray and his brother Jamie were among the pupils at Dunblane Primary School on that unspeakable day in March 1996.
They were with their classes and took cover a the UK’s worst mass shooting unfolded before them.
The tennis star’s family knew the gunman and Sir Andy had attended a kids’ club that he ran.
The two-time Wimbledon champion has since told how tennis was an “escape” for him after some of his childhood experiences.
During the Amazon Prime documentary Andy Murray: Resurfacing in 2019, he explained the importance of tennis to him to director Olivia Cappuccini.
He told the film-maker: “You asked me a while ago why tennis was important to me. I had the thing that happened at Dunblane, when I was around nine.
“I am sure for all the kids there it would be difficult for different reasons. The fact we knew the guy, we went to his kids’ club, he had been in our car, we had driven and dropped him off at train stations and things.
“Within 12 months of that happening, our parents got divorced. It was a difficult time. To see that and not quite understand what is going on.
“And then six to 12 months after that, my brother also moved away from home. He went away to train to play tennis. We obviously used to do everything together. When he moved away that was also quite hard for me.”
Sir Andy said that around that time and after that, for a year or so, he had “lots of anxiety that came out when I was playing tennis”.
He added: “My feeling towards tennis is that it’s an escape for me in some ways because all of these things are stuff that I have bottled up.”
In the decades since the shooting, the tennis success of Sir Andy and his brother Jamie, a Wimbledon mixed doubles champion, has helped put Dunblane on the map for reasons other than the tragedy.
Sir Andy, who also won two Olympic gold medals in his career, previously spoke about how he was glad to do something positive, telling the BBC in a 2013 interview: “It is just nice that I’ve been able to do something the town is proud of.”
More recently, he has become an official patron of a charity set up in the aftermath of the Dunblane tragedy.
After receiving donations from across the world following the shooting, the Dunblane Centre, a community centre for all ages, was opened in memory of those affected.
This month, a 50KW (kilowatt) solar energy system, comprising 96 rooftop panels, has been installed at the centre - and it could save it up to £9,000 a year in energy costs.
The solar array was gifted by local renewable energy company GreenPower, owned by long-term Dunblane residents Rob and Julie Forrest.
Dunblane Centre chairwoman Jenny Stirton said the charity was “deeply grateful”.
She added: “The Dunblane Centre was built using funds given to the town in the aftermath of the tragedy at Dunblane Primary School in 1996.
“For more than two decades, we have worked to honour that legacy by providing young people, and the wider community, with a place to belong, connect and grow.
“As we approach the 30th anniversary, this investment in renewable energy feels especially meaningful. It represents not only sustainability in environmental terms, but sustainability of purpose – helping to ensure that the centre can continue to serve future generations with the same spirit of care, resilience and hope on which it was founded.”
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