RSABI Honorary Vice-president Andrew Arbuckle (80) has been made an MBE during a ceremony at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.
Andrew, who served as a Trustee of RSABI prior to becoming a Vice-president, received his MBE from His Majesty The King during a private investiture at the Palace. He has raised more than £100,000 for RSABI, by producing three books (two with his late brother John) which take a light-hearted look at farming life.
RSABI Chief Executive Carol McLaren attended the ceremony with Andrew’s daughters Lydia and Elizabeth and extended the charity’s warmest congratulations and huge thanks to Andrew.
“As well as raising a fabulous amount for RSABI, Andrew has also raised the spirits of a great many people involved in Scottish agriculture. We are incredibly grateful to Andrew and proud of his achievements and we are delighted to see him receive this honour,” said Ms McLaren.
Andrew has also made an exceptional contribution to the heritage and growth of community arts and sport in Fife, along with a career as an award-winning agricultural journalist and his dedication to local and national politics in Scotland.
In 2012 he was awarded the Netherthorpe Award, the top UK award for agricultural journalism, and during his years as Agricultural Editor of The Courier and The Scotsman, his journalistic skills ranged from covering crisis situations such as Foot and Mouth and BSE, to numerous highly insightful commentary pieces.
Andrew was brought up on a family farm in Fife and, in addition to his journalism career, has held a range of positions in support of the industry including being a director of Fife Growers co-operative from 1974 to 1977, promoting the growing of field scale vegetables for the frozen market following the closure of the Cupar sugar beet factory.
In the 1970s, he served as a director of the Scottish Nuclear Stock Association established to promote the raspberry industry through the sales of healthy canes and in 1992, he was elected chairman of the Fife & Kinross Area of NFU Scotland. He also served on the NFUS Legal committee at national level for seven years and was awarded the NFU Scotland Ambassador Award in 2023.
He chaired Newburgh Community Trust (NCT) during a period when in excess of £250,000 was raised to convert a former factory brown field site into Riverside Park which is now much enjoyed by the local community as an informal recreation parkland area.
During his term as Chairman of the Trust, Andrew also led the Trust to successfully raise £60k to buy, and now run, the former town reservoir as an informal recreational park. This was the first community-owned reservoir in Scotland.
Other notable projects between 2000 and 2010, when Andrew was chair of NCT, included upgrading the paths in a local park and creating a pathway along the riverside. In his 16 years at the helm of NCT, this traditional town attracted almost one million pounds of investment, with the initiatives Andrew was involved in making a significant contribution to preserving its heritage and also being transformational to the community.
In 2006 Mr Arbuckle chaired a committee of the Howe of Fife Rugby Club in Cupar and led efforts to raise over one million pounds to provide a Community Sports facility for the area. In 2016 Mr Arbuckle was asked to chair the Tayport Community Trust and helped them to raise £2.5 million for a new Community Centre and a caravan park. He has also given four decades of service to Scottish local and national politics, from 1986 to May 2007.
Andrew is pictured with his daughters Lydia and Elizabeth.