Speakers Evening

On Thursday 22nd October, those Rotary Club of South Queensferry members who joined the virtual weekly meeting enjoyed a stimulating PowerPoint presentation from Stewart Macgregor from the Robertson Trust.

Originally from Langholm and with a background in youth work in Govan, Stewart joined the Robertson Trust over six years ago. The trust's origins date to 1961 when three Robertson sisters, Elspeth, Agnes and Ethel, donated their shares from the family business to found a charitable trust. The family business is now known as Edrington - a global company and owner of several well-known whisky brands including The Macallan, Highland Park, The Glenrothes and The Famous Grouse.

The Robertson Trust donates £20 million a year to charities and has set the target of donating £200 million over the next ten years. Stewart explained that, at the beginning, the sisters used to slip cheques under the doors of people they knew were doing charitable work worthy of support. Their anonymity was uncovered when a journalist recognised them at Peterhead where one of the sisters had purchased a lifeboat for the RNLI. Next year the Trust will celebrate its sixtieth anniversary. Among many charitable activities, the Trust runs scholarships for young people to attend college or university. At present 150 - 160 students benefit from this. The Robertson Trust has two facilities, the head office in Bath Street, Glasgow, and a brand new Conference Centre at Stirling Barracks which opened just before lockdown in March.

Trust staff also raise funds on the behalf of charities. Every £1 they raise is matched by the Trust. The £700,000 raised by Scottish staff has helped over 130 charities. The Trust's values as described by Stewart are: 'We are ambitious; We connect; We act with integrity.'  Its vision is 'Support; Inform; Fund'. The present focus is on poverty and trauma, which falls into three broad categories.

Welfare: offering advice, advising on food insecurity, offering housing and employment advice. Emotional Wellbeing and Relationships: offering family, parent and carer support and mental health services. Educational and Work Pathways: supports educational engagement and attainment and developing skills to gain and retain employment.

Stewart was an entertaining speaker whose presentation highlighted a little-known organisation doing an immense amount of good work in Scotland and around the world. Ed Kelly introduced the speaker. Craig MacKenzie proposed the vote of thanks.