Grace bows out after 60 years service

A SPECIAL celebration was on the Langholm Common Riding menu on Friday.

It marked 60 years that the Muckle Toon’s retired local government officer Grace Brown BEM had organised the Common Riding Breakfast and the civic events in the Town Hall.

Grace, who has remained active in local affairs as a community councillor, has organised the breakfast, which hosts invited official guests to and is a thank you for the hospitality Langholm representatives receive elsewhere.

She has faithfully carried out the role since the mid-1960s following the event’s inception by Provost James Grieve, leader of the then Langholm Town Council when Grace then had a clerical role in the Town Hall.

The event was known as the Provost’s Breakfast until the formation of Annandale and Eskdale District Council following local government re-organisation in 1975 when it became the Common Riding Breakfast, hospitality provided by subsequent local authorities and hosted by Langholm, Ewes and Westerkirk Community Council.

In her various roles in local government and as a community councillor Grace has continued to organise the event like clockwork and received warm praise at this year’s event.

The breakfast was chaired by Community Council vice-chairwoman, Mary Hudson, and the guest speaker was Stephen Thompson, current leader of Dumfries and Galloway Council.

Also in attendance were Lord Lieutenant Fiona Armstrong, MSP Oliver Mundell and MP David Mundell.

Roger Maxwell on behalf of the Common Riding committee, presented Grace with a bouquet of flowers and thanked her for her dedication.

Further bouquets were also presented and Fiona Armstrong praised the tremendous contribution Grace had made to the community and wished her a happy retirement from the role.

During the evening civic event, after the handing over of the flag, the Cornet’s mother, Fiona Patterson was presented with an inscribed glass from Dumfries and Galloway Council and the community council, as was semi-jubilee Cornet Steven Hotson.

Finally, Mary Hudson presented Grace with a specially inscribed glass.

Next year the community council, along with the Langholm Alliance, will organise civic events in the town and community councillor James Taylor has diligently shadowed Grace to learn the ropes.

Above: Grace Brown with Fiona Armstrong, David and Oliver Mundell and Stephen Thompson