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Aberdeen, Dundee and St Andrews
In the early 1980s a small cruise ship called at Aberdeen several times each summer and required local guides. There were none and so staff of the City’s Department of Information and Tourism were drafted in, along with a local retired cruise ship host. At other times, most notably during the fast-growing Offshore Europe oil and gas exhibition, guides were also required for tours with VIPs’ wives (always wives back then!) just when the Department was at its busiest. Aware that using Information and Tourism staff was not sustainable, the Department’s Director, Gordon Henry, recognised there was a need for qualified tourist guides in the city.
Shirley Spain, who worked in the department, made contact with the STGA in Edinburgh and also with Aberdeen College of Commerce. As a result a new course was run in partnership with the STGA in late 1981 with Helen Gerrard of the college’s Department of General Studies becoming the course tutor. The course was held on two afternoons per week and the students were informed by letter in June 1982 to tell them if they had passed.
Successful students received a diploma from the Scottish Tourist Board “in recognition of success gained in the final examinations, held as part of the training of Scottish Tourist Guides”. A photo, taken outside Aberdeen Tourist Information Centre, shows the Scottish Tourist Board representative with some (but not all) of the newly-qualified guides. Elma McMenemy, who was then working for the Department of Information and Tourism, said there were then 13 qualified guides in/around Aberdeen. Seven - Fem Goudriaan, James Grant, Lesley Miller, Isobel Moir, Anne Sinclair, Liz Williamson and Alix Wood – were full time. There were also six part time guides including Shirley Spain who had helped to get the course off the ground together with Aberdeen city council colleagues Yvonne Cook and Anne Lamont. Elma had missed out on the 1981 course because the council would only spare three people to do it and it was felt she already had sufficient experience to allow her to work as a guide for the city! Elma and Shirley had been the DIT staff required to guide the visitors from a small ship called The Argonaught which carried high-end American passengers.
‘I remember one group was from an organisation of Friends of the Smithsonian who expected - and deserved - a good experience, and I was at that point a very poor guide - but I did my best,’ Elma said. ‘My tour for these people was always the same - Aberdeen city, Crathes Castle and lunch at Banchory Lodge Hotel before returning to the ship for free time in the afternoon. There were two other tours/coaches, both to Crathes and Balmoral. One was guided by my boss, Shirley Spain, the other by an older lady called Alix Wood who had been a cruise host, and so had been on countless tours as ship’s escort elsewhere in the world, but was not a guide. She had retired to Aberdeen/Deeside and she gave Shirley and me excellent tips and guidance about what our visitors would be expecting. Once, when I was upset I had forgotten to tell my group something which I thought was important, I remember Alix telling me that the group didn’t know I’d forgotten anything and so it really wasn’t important at all. I’ve remembered that many times since and have also passed it on to other guides. Of course, this took Shirley and me away from our ‘real jobs’ and so Gordon Henry determined Aberdeen must have qualified guides and Shirley was tasked to make this happen, with a little help from me,’ Elma added.
At this time, Aberdeen was being promoted as “The City for Lovers” ... of History, Flowers, Sport etc, but without a major ‘must see’ attraction, guides found that opportunities for guiding tourists were limited and many turned to local residents’ groups and corporate tours to provide work. Yvonne Cook recalls that one of the first activities of the Aberdeen branch was to set up the Old Aberdeen guided walkabouts, twice a week, on a Sunday and an evening mid-week. ‘I instigated them and co-ordinated them as Secretary/Bookings Secretary,’ said Yvonne. ‘Tickets were sold in the TIC or from the guide at the start of the walkabout. Based on advance ticket sales/weather/booking patterns we fielded one or two guides for each walkabout and I recall putting together the rota for the guides/standby guides. We pooled all the income and split it up at the end of the season based on the
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