Christian Aid Fundraiser Among King's Birthday Honours

Tuesday June 17 2024

Myrtle McGregor (right), founder of the Clarkston Art Show, pictured with Ann Clark who organised this year's event when Myrtle fell ill.

A charity supporter who has helped to raise thousands of pounds for Christian Aid has been awarded a BEM in the King’s Birthday Honours List.

Myrtle McGregor, from Glasgow, was honoured following more than 40 years of work organising the Clarkston Art Show.

The event, hosted by the Clarkston and District Christian Aid Committee, has taken place each spring since 1981. Over the years it has grown until it now has some 350 paintings for sale and raises more than £3,500 on average each time.

Myrtle, who for many years was the Christian Aid rep for Busby Parish Church, started the sale and until recently chaired the Art Show Committee. This included the year the pandemic made public events impossible, when she assembled a team to ensure the sale could go ahead online.

The 85-year-old said news of her honour took a while to sink in. “It has taken me a long time to get it in my head,” she said. “I have made so many friends with all our different fundraising events and had many happy days - it has always been a joy.”

A trio of Church of Scotland musicians were also named in the Honours List. Professor Donald Murray Campbell, professor of musical acoustics at Edinburgh University, was given a BEM for services to Carlops Church and the community in Tweeddale and Edinburgh; as were Margaret Mary Donaldson, organist of Wardie Parish Church in Edinburgh, and Edna Margaret Edmond, organist of Skene Parish Church in Aberdeenshire.

The King also recognised a number of people involved in the uniformed organisations. Graham Edward Coulson, ambassador of the European Overture Diversity Network for Scouts and Guides, was named MBE for services to Scouting and the community in Selkirk, Roxburgh, Ettrick and Lauderdale; and there were BEMS for James MacAra Comrie, Scout Leader of the 5th Perthshire (Crieff) Group, Anne Milligan, County Archivist, for services to Girlguiding in South Lanarkshire, and Nigel Maurice Lidstone Scott, for services to the Scout Movement and to Older People in the South West of Scotland.

Former Prime Minister and Church of Scotland member, Gordon Brown, has been appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour for public and charitable service.

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