North-east business and sporting excellence will be toasted at a St Andrew’s Day celebration in London next month.
Aberdeen Asset Management chief executive Martin Gilbert will be honoured for outstanding achievement, while Inverurie Olympian and Commonwealth Games gold medal-winning swimmer Hanna Miley will receive an award recognising young talent.
Adding to the strong north-east flavour to the occasion, Sir David Reid, 68, will host the fundraising lunch at the Savoy Hotel.
And in a further nod to the wealth of talent to be found in the region, singer, actress and broadcaster Fiona Kennedy and Aberdeen University Choir – conducted by Royal wedding composer Paul Mealor – will entertain the guests.
The lunch and its charity auction will raise cash for Aberdeen University’s spinal injury research and London Scottish rugby club, where Sir David is chairman.
Sir David, who was a hooker for London Scottish in his younger days, was until 2011 chairman of supermarket giant Tesco and is now in the same role at Intertek, which tests products from toys and clothes to oil and renewables technology.
He is a frequent visitor to the north-east, thanks to a holiday home at Cruden Bay.
But his links to the region do not stop there. His father was from Auchenblae and his mother’s family farmed at Loanhead of Savock, Auchnagatt.
Educated at Lathallan School, near Johnshaven, and Fettes College, in Edinburgh, Sir David’s summer holidays were spent at Peterhead, where his uncle was a GP.
He later trained as a chartered accountant with James Jeffrey in Aberdeen, and holds honorary degrees at both Aberdeen and Robert Gordon universities.
Sir David said the third annual St Andrew’s Day at the Savoy lunch, sponsored by Glengoyne Highland single malt whisky in association with London Scottish, was shaping up to be a “wonderful celebration of Scots in London”.
“All are welcome to come along,” he said, adding there were still tickets available through the London Scottish website.
Two other “iconic” Scots are being honoured at the November 27 event.
They are World Anti-Doping Agency president Sir Craig Reedie and London 2012 Paralympics gold medallist and double world champion rower David Smith.