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In 1980 the STGA celebrated its 21st birthday with an informal Buffet Dance at Stockbridge House and the Lord Provost of Edinburgh agreed to become Honorary President of the Edinburgh branch of the STGA.
The 1980s was a decade in which Anne Lister took a major role in the evolution of the STGA and which saw the arrival of another figure, Ros Newlands, who would help to take her work on to the next stage. Anne was in charge of the training, and she and Elizabeth Seaton alternated as chairs of STGA, for a number of years. Anne was born in Dundee and studied English and Philosophy at St Andrews University. She taught for two years then married Tony, a journalist from Manchester, and lived in England until the second world war when she spent three years in the Land Army. Her role was to look after the welfare of the Land Girls. She worked at Manchester University on the 2nd Domesday Book of Agriculture and later moved to Scotland where her husband Tony had got a job with the Scottish Tourist Board.
In the late 1950s she returned to teaching at Ainslie Park where she remained until her retirement in 1976. She qualified as a Blue Badge Tourist Guide in 1972 and was secretary of the association before later becoming Chairman and was very knowledgeable about, and involved in, the association’s affairs.
One of her students was a Language school agent called Ros Newlands who saw an advertisement in the Scotsman which was to change her life. Ros had graduated with a psychology degree and her first job was working as a Personnel officer at box manufacturer, William Thyne. By 1975 she was married and gave birth to a son and left her job. About 18 months later she got a job as an agent at a language school for students coming to Edinburgh. She had been in the job for some 13 years when she was asked if she would consider taking a group of students on a tour to Edinburgh. She liked the experience and then saw the advert recruiting students for a Scottish Tourist Guides Association course. The fee was something like £600 or £700, which, in 1983, was quite a lot of money.
Ros said there were 30 students on the course and they had to go to classes twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays, in the evening.
‘We had days where we went out, but nothing like what they do now. We did Edinburgh, Fife and the Borders, and paid a very brief visit to Glasgow. The first time you went out you were assessed so trainees had to do recces in advance of the regional tour. I can remember doing the bit, I'll never forget it, from St Andrews down to Anstruther and going the weekend before and learning it all.
‘We had a written exam, which involved writing a lot of short essays. And then, we did a practical assessment in Edinburgh, only. I now know that they had a policy that they were going to make sure that only 15 people got through. That was the number of guides they needed, and that’s what happened.’
So Ros became a guide and remembers Anne having ambitious plans for the STGA.
‘Anne had a dream that we would, one day, have an office, and that we would also have a National Council,’ said Ros.
At that stage the STGA had two main branches in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Then Anne organised training in Dundee and Aberdeen and set up what became known as the National Council in 1986. It consisted of members from the Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen branches. Anne was the chair. At its first meeting in April 1986 Edinburgh branch was represented by Emelie Berry, Jean Duncan and Jane Orde. Glasgow’s members were John Biggar, Jean Coleman and Jay Wright while Yvonne Cook and Isobel Moir attended on behalf of Aberdeen members.
Among the issues discussed by the new national body was a course set up by the Manpower Services Commission to train 16 to 18 year olds to be tour guides. The new council believed that they would be too young to accept the responsibilities and emergencies which may occur on extended tours. Anne agreed to get in touch with the secretary of state for Scotland Malcolm Rifkind to point out the existence of the STGA and the possible dangers which young people may be subject to in guiding.
Anne may have had a serious role but she had a good sense of humour. In an interview celebrating the 25th anniversary in the Edinburgh Evening News she told a story about the
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