A RETIRED Peebles teacher has received a prestigious award from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC).

Fiona Dunlop, who volunteers for the CWGC, was given a Spotlight Award and received a letter congratulating her from CWGC’s Director General, Claire Horton.

Mrs Dunlop cares for over 150 graves across 15 sites in the Scottish Boarders and mentors and supports new volunteers. She is now training to be a CWGC volunteer tour guide.

She previously taught history at Peebles High School for 35 years and organised annual trips to sites in France.

She said: “The days spent visiting and exploring the battlefields, museums, memorials and cemeteries of the Somme, the Ypres Salient and Loos with my colleagues and the students were amongst the most stimulating and rewarding of my career.

“The work allows me to ‘pay back’ the CWGC for caring for the graves of two of my relations.

“My grandmother’s brother was killed in action in 1917 and buried in Langemark and her first cousin, who died in the Lolaire Disaster in 1919 is buried in Ness, on the Isle of Lewis.”

In the letter Ms Horton wrote: “I’m enormously grateful for your contribution and the valuable work that you do to support us in honouring and caring for the men and women of the Commonwealth forces who are in our care, and you should be proud to know that your work as a volunteer has made a very real difference to the way in which we are able to care for these men and women here in Great Britain.”  

People can book cemetery talks and tours, and find out more about the CWGC at: www.cwgc.org