Ceremony of the Keys

THERE ARE MANY people across the world whose lives were touched by the Duke of Edinburgh. Cllr Gavin Barrie remembered while attending the Ceremony of the Keys in 2018, that the last time he had met the Duke was 43 years earlier when he had been invited to the Palace of Holyroodhouse to receive his Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award.

Cllr Barrie said: “To me that award is of great significance, because two years later in 1977, aged 20, I was one of 600 applicants to apply to join Tayside Fire Brigade, as it was known at that time.

“Of the 600 hundred applicants ten of us made it through to the final interview with the Firemaster, where two were selected for employment. My abiding memory of that interview was the only thing the Firemaster asked me about was what I did to achieve the Gold DofE Award. And there started a career for me that lasted 34 years.”