Born: 4 February, 1946, in Edinburgh.
Died: 17 July, 2008, in Edinburgh, aged 62.
ANNE Service was a leading light in the Girl Guide movement and a pillar of the local community in South Queensferry. Born in 19
46, to Effie and Albert Wright, a talented saxophonist of the post-war dance-band era, Anne lost both parents at an early age and she and her brother were raised by an aunt and uncle, Nan and Wattie Lumsden, in Edinburgh.
Anne attended school at Preston Street Primary and Boroughmuir and later worked in insurance and law offices before joining the Edinburgh office of Guinness Breweries.
It was through the licensed trade that she met her future husband, Derek, whom she married in 1970. The births of daughters Kristy and Kara soon followed in 1979 and 1982 but even when raising a young family, Anne's devotion to guiding generally, and in particular to the 6th South Queensferry Brownies, which she founded and served for more than 30 years, never wavered.
She started out as a young brownie in Newington and St Leonard's in the 1950s and worked her way to the pinnacle of her career as assistant commissioner to Inveralmond. Anne's work within guiding took her to the national office as a trainer and adviser and the Scottish HQ team. In 2003, she was honoured with the Laurel Award, one of guiding's highest attainments.
Leading the tributes from her colleagues was former chief commissioner for guides in Scotland, and a close personal friend, Liz Pitcairn. She said: "It is not hard to picture Anne as a young brownie or guide because, in many respects, she never really stopped being one. It was always about the girls, irrespective of other appointments she may have held. Anne never lost her first love, to work with her brownies."
Her brother, Bert, now living in Dublin, remembered his sister's passion for the movement. He said: "Anne was so intensely devoted to the Girl Guides she was fair game for a bit of gentle teasing. We used to call her Lady Baden Powell but her instincts were always right.
"Generations of young women were the beneficiaries of Anne's leadership over the decades and seeing her guiding colleagues turn out in such force for her funeral was truly heart-warming."
Anne was also a local church elder and, with the late Rev John Carrie, she co-founded an annual parade of youth organisations in South Queensferry which is still going after 30 years.
Friends, neighbours, and colleagues in the community she served so well were deeply saddened at her death.
Perhaps inherited from her musical family, another of Anne's greatest interests was singing, especially folk music. In her teens and early twenties, she frequented the haunts of Edinburgh's folk music revival, Sandy Bell's, the Crown, the Waverley, the Edinburgh Folk Club and, in particular, the Buffs Club on Albany Street at a time before Archie Fisher, Dick Gaughan, The Macalmans and others achieved national fame.
Accompanied by her brother on guitar, she sang in many of these venues, once drawing warm praise from no less a singer than Barbara Dickson. Appropriately, attendees at Anne's funeral left to the strains of Jean Redpath singing The Railway Porter, a song she had taught to legions of brownies and girl guides over the years.
Writing in the funeral order of service, Bert, said: "Since 17 July many of us have been struggling to imagine a world without her. Anne was a force of nature and had such a talent for life; her loss will leave a huge void. She was a real giver and a doer and her infectious energy and zest for life brought out the best in all around her."
Anne Service is survived by Derek and their daughters.
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