Eddie registers his passion for railways

“I was born in 1951 in the Simpson Memorial Maternity Hospital in Edinburgh weighing just two pounds and was in an incubator for two months,” said Eddie.

“It was touch and go if I would make it, but I pulled through and, when my mother brought me back to Galashiels on the train, I apparently smiled all the way home.

“It was my first ever railway journey and it seems I enjoyed it.” While railways continue to hold an abiding fascination for the 63-year-old, that is not the only reason he and his wife Margaret have been awarded a coveted Golden Ticket to travel on the inaugural Borders Railway runs on Saturday, September 5.

For Eddie was nominated by his former colleagues at Scottish Borders Council, receiving his congratulatory letter last week on the day of his retirement after 47 years of local authority service.

To aver that Eddie Czajka – the two pound baby who grew into a six foot two inch second row forward - is well known in the town is an understatement.

For he has played a key role in the lives of generations of Gala folk, having been the senior registrar, recording every birth, marriage and death in town and district, for over 30 years.

The son of Polish-born Walter Czajka (pronounced Shy-ka) and Elizabeth Purves, he was raised with his two brothers in Halliburton Place and Forest Gardens and attended Glendinning, Balmoral and the Academy.

He had wanted to join the Royal Navy but was rejected because of his short-sightedness and in 1968 he began work as a junior clerk in what was then the registrar’s office of Selkirkshire County Council in Gala Park.

“We shared the building with the welfare [social work] department and one of my first duties was to deliver toilet rolls to all the old folks homes in the county in the office mini van,” he recalled.

“It was hardly an auspicious start to my working life although I did enjoy meeting people.” That was to stand him in good stead when, aged 18, he became an assistant registrar under the tutelage of Andrew Bunyan.

“Nothing much had changed in the way we registered births and deaths since 1854,” recalled Eddie. “We wrote all the documents by hand using a fountain pen and special registrar’s ink. Andrew always stressed the importance of what we did.” When he was 21 and with the office having moved to High Street (opposite the old Border Telegraph building), Eddie was, for the first time, able to conduct marriage ceremonies.

“Civil marriages then were not what they are now,” he told us. “Most were quite low key, even sombre occasions, with only the bride and groom and two witnesses present.

“You had to react sincerely and always with tact and diplomacy to the happiness of parents registering a birth and the grief of a family experiencing bereavement. It was a lesson I never forgot even although Andrew, my mentor, died aged just 63.” In 1984, having successfully gained his Certificate in the Law and Practice of Registration in Scotland, Eddie became Gala’s registrar, by now based at the library building in Lawyers Brae.

As a more secular and technologically advanced society evolved, civil marriages became more popular and meticulously written registrations gave way to word processors and computers.

Although Eddie admits he “never got to grips” with computers, he enthusiastically embraced the change in the law which allowed registrars to marry couples outwith the precincts of the registry office.

“From low key civil marriages to luxurious wedding ceremonies in wonderful locations – from Old Gala House to Scott’s View – was a massive change.

“I found myself centre stage often with hundreds of guests looking on. It took a while to get used to but it became the best part of the job.

“My favourite location was Sir Walter Scott’s library at Abbotsford with a full orchestra playing – that was something else.” The work, however, became more demanding with Eddie often having to perform four weddings at different venues on the same day, and in 2011 he decided to retire.

“I was looking to slow down a little bit,” explained Eddie who, within weeks, had taken a part time job at SBC Borders Archive Centre in Hawick’s Heritage Hub, sharing his knowledge of genealogy and helping people research their family trees.” Having enjoyed that stint, Eddie is now planning to spend more time tending his large Ladhope Crescent garden and, with Margaret (nee Gibson), further indulging their interest in preservation railways.

The couple first met when Eddie was a 14-year-old message boy at Henry’s the grocer in High Street where Margaret’s mother was a shop assistant.

Their courtship began in earnest after a night’s dancing in the Talisman disco and, last year, they celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary.

Eddie was a long-standing officer in the Boys’ Brigade and played rugby in the pack for Gala 2nds, but his main sporting interest remains bowling. He was president of Galashiels Bowling Club in 1998.

An avid support of the Braw Lads’ Gathering, he was Bearer of the Sod in 1971 when Iain Rackham was Braw Lad.

In 2002, he fulfilled a lifelong ambition when travelling with Margaret and four friends to Canada to ride on the world famous and spectacular Rocky Mountaineer railway line.

The couple are enthusiastic Friends of the West Highland Lines and are this week enjoying their annual holiday in Morar near Mallaig on a line featuring the Glenfinnan Viaduct - made famous by the Harry Potter films.

“The return of the railway to Galashiels offers great potential for tourism, particularly if we can have steam trains running regularly as they do in the Highlands where the visitors flood in” said Eddie.

“I was absolutely speechless to learn I’d been given Golden Ticket and I’m still struggling to get my head around it. I feel truly humbled.”