McCoist pays tribute to government staff
SCOTS football legend Ally McCoist has paid tribute to 26 civil servants who have served the full 40 years at a government building he worked in when it opened. The Rangers and Scotland striker turned TV and radio personality was one of 350 staff recruited when the then Overseas Development Administration (ODA) opened Abercrombie House in East Kilbride in 1981.
The building was officially opened by then foreign secretary Lord Carrington 40 years ago yesterday and now houses almost 1000 employees as the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s joint HQ.
Although McCoist, now 59, only worked there for five months as a clerical assistant before his football career took off, he has paid tribute to the former colleagues he worked with when the building first opened.
The footballer, who played part-time with St Johnstone at the time said: “It’s amazing to think that 26 of the people I worked with when Abercrombie House first opened are still there today. If you ask me, they all deserve a George Cross in recognition of that service.
“It was a massive boost for East Kilbride that building opening. I still remember my first day, getting off the 77 bus from Calderwood, and walking into this amazing new place as a civil servant.
“My mum and dad clearly knew what I wanted to do with my life, but they’d made sure I’d kept up with my schoolwork and were proud as punch I’d got the ODA job.
“Wee Brian was my boss and I used to sit next to a girl called Louise, who was the biggest Celtic fan you ever met in your life and we used to have great fun.
“There was a cracking group of people there at the time and I loved the camaraderie. One of the best things was that there was a pub on site.
“The lucky thing was that at ODA, at that time, we worked flexi hours, which was brilliant, as I could work my football around it. So, I could go in early, do my shift, and if I needed to get the bus up to St Johnstone then I was able to do that.
“Sadly, I was too far down the pay scale to be given any foreign assignments. They obviously sussed me out straight away and wouldn’t let me out of East Kilbride.”
His civil service career ended when Sunderland signed him for £355,000 from St Johnstone.
But he said: “You can never say how life might have panned out if football hadn’t worked out, but I wouldn’t have been desperate to leave Overseas Development.
“I’m deadly serious because I really enjoyed my work there. There was no way I was dying to escape.
“You never know, if I hadn’t joined Sunderland, I might have been one of those who have served the full 40 years.”
Earlier this year, it was revealed that more than 500 of 1000 civil service jobs relocated to Scotland were Foreign Office posts moving to the department’s existing base in East Kilbride.