Published: Friday, 23rd March, 2007 10:52
Ogilvie's happy returns for trust
By Jamie Halpin
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BORDERS stalwart Ogilvie Dickson celebrated his 70th birthday last Thursday and he used his special day to raise “a fantastic sum” for his favourite charity – with a little help from a Royal friend.
Ogilvie, from Melrose, combined his birthday celebrations with a parade and fundraising dinner in Peebles for the Gurkha Welfare Trust, a charity he has been involved with for 11 years.
It was the biggest single sum ever raised for the charity in Scotland. He said: “The fundraising was a huge success. At the moment we have raised more than £12,600 and it is still rising. It is a fantastic sum of money. The money was raised from the profits from ticket sales for the dinner, gifted donations and the prize draws.
“I was proud to receive a statuette of First World War piper Daniel Laidlaw for my services to the Gurkha Welfare Trust. It was made by Ballantyne’s of Walkerburn and donated by fellow veterans of the conflict in Malaysia in the late 1950s.
“Daniel Laidlaw was the piper with the King’s Own Scottish Borders who was still piping went when he over the trenches at the Battle of Loos in 1915.”
One of the other highlights of the night was a prize for one of the draws at the dinner at the Peebles Hydro, which was donated by a special friend.
Ogilvie said: “Prince Charles is Director-in-Chief of the Trust. Camilla and he were not able to attend last Thursday’s event because of a prior engagment, so he donated a planter with rare breeds of livestock painted on it.”
The winner of this prize was Jock Nichol of Dykecroft Farm, Newcastleton, who said that he would keep the planter as a family heirloom.
The evening started with a march from Peebles Parish Church by over 100 King’s Own Scottish Borderers veterans, who served in Malaya from 1955 to 1958. Some of the veterans came from as far afield as Australia, Germany and Canada. Ogilive Dickson is also a KOSB veteran, who served with the Gurkhas in Malaya during 1956 to 1958.
KOSB regimental piper John Winton, flanked by two Gurkha pipers from Nepal, led Melrose and District Pipes and Drums at the front of the parade. It headed towards Peebles Hydro after taking a salute by Brigadiers Frank Coutts and Allan Alstead outside the Tontine Hotel.
The grand finale to the night at the Hydro was the ‘piping in’ of the three banners that had been seen earlier on the parade through the town. These were the Malaysian national flag; the yellow flag of the construction company owned by Ogilvie Dickson prior to his retirement 12 years ago and the green flag of the Gurkha Welfare Trust showing the symbolic ‘cross kukris’ – the national weapon of Nepal and the Gurkas.
The Ghurka Welfare Trust pays a pension to 10,500 Gurkha pensioners and widows in Nepal each year. The Trust send an annual sum of over £5 million to the country to pay for items such as schools, hospitals and water supplies, as well as pensions.
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