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rejected by the Scottish Parliament’s Art advisory committee which said it did not meet its criteria for public art.
That wasn’t good enough for Blue Badge Guides Maggie McLeod, Morag Dunbar, Manuela Frankel and Ros Newlands who decided to campaign for it to stay in Holyrood Park. They got the backing of fellow STGA members and met MSPs at the Scottish Parliament’s Public Petitions committee to discuss its future. Thanks to the STGA’s campaign, and a petition with 2000 signatures supporting keeping the statue in the park, the Parliament allowed it to stay for another two years until 2010.
Ronald Rae said the support of the Scottish Tourist Guides had been monumental in affecting this decision. ‘They did it for the people of Scotland and we are very grateful,’ he said.
When St Andrews Square in the New Town was opened up to the public, Essential Edinburgh agreed to take it on loan and that is where it has stayed since. Ronald Rae continues to look for a buyer for the Lion and hopes it will be purchased for the city.
Blue Badge Guide Jan Philip’s daughter, Judith, got to be a dab hand at answering the phone and could deftly deal with all sorts of queries. When Judith was ten, Jan was out guiding and somebody was looking after her.
‘When I came back she told me while I was out a taxi had drawn up to the drive and two ladies had got out and had come up to the door and rang the bell and Judith had gone to it, ‘ said Jan. ‘They had spoken to her in fluent German to which she could not reply. She then decided that the best thing she could do was to ask them to wait while she went in, looked up the guide list and chose one of the German speaking guides whom she knew of, if she didn’t know her personally. She phoned Evelyn Hutchinson and said could she speak to the ladies. So they were brought in, put onto the phone and everything was sorted out.
‘What had happened was they had got a guide list or a What’s On in Glasgow and the contact for the tourist guides was me,’ explained Jan. ‘It put in not just my phone number but my address. They thought because they didn’t speak English that they would get a taxi and come to this address and talk to somebody at the office! So, they got a wee bit of a surprise when they got a ten year old answering the door but she did it very well and they went away very apologetic but very happy with what had been arranged.’
A family affair Jan Philip
Richard Thomson, chair STGA Edinburgh branch 1994 to 1995
‘Way, way back in the early 90's, we were working with the Science Festival and taking walking tours with the theme being astronomy. So, we had a big press day at Calton Hill with television, Radio Forth and the Evening News. We were all costumed up looking like Victorians. As chairman, I thought it best that I go to the observatory up at Blackford and collect a telescope they were letting us take for the day. So off I went, spoke to the chap there, put this telescope in my car, with tripod stand and all. I said, just out of conversation, how much is this worth? To my astonishment, shock and total horror, he said 'around about £5,000” I just about had a stroke. I thought they would just give me something for the sake of the press day. I replied, 'I cannot take this, too valuable, no insurance (insurance did not even enter your thoughts) are you sure?' Reply: 'no worries son, trust you, just look after it' ‘I actually took it to my parents where they had space and they were thinking this was crazy. It was safe there. Next day, I went there to collect it, drove at five mph to Calton Hill, told the other guides the story and they were thinking 'OMG ,what if something happens to it, we are in the ‘××××’! Nervous is not the word. But the day came, it went, all ok, great coverage for us and the successful walks we did. I returned it straight away, saw this guy and he obviously had been thinking on this and he said ' maybe next time, if there is one, we had
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