Soon after agreeing to work with each other on Farm North East magazine as editor and arable editor, respectively – see separate story – Eddie Gillanders and Ewan Pate, both Members of the Guild, have received industry recognition.
Eddie was presented with the Hugh Watson Memorial Award for his lifetime dedication to Aberdeen-Angus cattle by society president David Evans. As The Scottish Farmerreports, Eddie joined the organisation’s staff in 1959 at the age of just 15 as junior clerk in the Herd Book department, before being promoted to committee clerk when he was 18.
Preparing agendas and minutes must have given Eddie a taste for writing as he left the society to become a journalist in 1964, but maintained a relationship with the organisation as its press officer and assistant secretary at different times, and edited the Aberdeen-Angus Review until 2010.
In 1972, he instigated the formation of a breed club for the north-east, fulfilling the role of secretary until being elected President upon his retirement from the job in 2013.
Eddie’s new arable correspondent, Ewan Pate, has received Scotland’s farming ambassador award from NFU Scotland and NFU Mutual.
The award set up in 2009, reports the Press & Journal, recognises an individual who has played an important role in communicating the work, challenges and value of Scottish farming and food to a wider audience. Previous winners include Ken Rundle, a fellow Member of the Guild and former BBC Scotloand journalist, now head of communications at SRUC, Scotland’s rural college, and former Press & Journal farming editor, the late Joe Watson.
Ewan was given the award in recognition of his “enormous contribution and effort in covering agricultural and food issues in The Courier newspaper, his support for the industry through his involvement with the union’s committees and his work as vice chairman of Scottish rural charity RSABI.”
