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One of the purposes of the Scottish Tourist Guides Association was to create ‘professional’ guides who not only learned about Mary Queen of Scots but who also knew how to make sure a large group of tourists didn’t get run down when crossing a busy road. I came to the world of tourist guiding quite late in life but that is not uncommon in my new profession. Many of my fellow trainees on the course that led to me becoming a professional ‘Blue Badge’ Tourist Guide had also had previous careers. Two were former head teachers, one was a retired navy commander, another a retired senior army officer and we even had the former British Ambassador for Uruguay. There were some younger trainees including a St Andrews university graduate with a talent for acting.
So why did we all want to become tourist guides? I can’t answer for everyone but my motivation was being fed up sitting in front of a computer all day in my job as a journalist and wanting to divert my talents for story telling on paper to speaking to a live audience. Like all my colleagues I am a people person and get a kick out of the reaction you get from guests to what you have to tell them about Scotland. And there is a lot to tell! On the Blue Badge guide course we studied art, architecture, geology, geography, history, literature, wildlife...the list goes on. But the key thing we were taught was to talk about what we could see around us and explain to our guests what they were looking at. On the course many of my lecturers were qualified guides who taught us the ropes including how to handle challenging situations which inevitably arise when you take people on a tour – be it a half day walking tour or a 12 day extended tour on a coach.
This history tells the story of how our association was formed and the challenges it met over the years. We tell you about how guides are trained and relate some of the many amusing things that have happened to us doing our job. There have been a lot of people involved in helping me to put together this history. Particular thanks go to Ros Newlands whose encyclopaedic knowledge of the association’s history has been invaluable. But I must also thank Doreen Boyle, Sally Spaven, Viola Lewis, Mary Kemp Clarke, Richard Thomson, Norma Clarkson, Maggie McLeod, Ken Hanley, Toni McPherson, Marilyn Hunter, Jan Philip, Margaret Anderson, Michael Glen, Morag Dunbar, Bill Combe, Norma Allan, Kristine Sander, Alan MacDonald, Susan Shedden, Tom Caskie, Helen Manning, Des Brogan, Dave Tucker, Evelyn Tiefenbrun, David Arthur, Margaret McCann, Bruce Cochran, Elma McMenemy, Catriona Anderson, Andrew Thackrey, Keith Laing, Lyn Brown, Stewart Noble, Jean Blair, Gail Fotheringham, Sue Casely, Andy Middleton, Marianne Everett de Vink, Gavin Hunter, Akiko Elliot, Atsuko Clement, Sachiko McKay, Misako Udo, Inge Wanless, Patricia Long, Joan Dobbie, and
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