Lenzie man is made Lord Dean of Guild

In this role he will also be Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Merchants House of Glasgow.

Alasdair is the second resident of Lenzie to be elected to the post in recent times, following Douglas Boyd who served from 2011-2013.

The Merchants House of Glasgow was constituted in 1605 by the Letter of Guildry which laid down the rights, duties and privileges of the rival bodies of Merchants and Craftsmen.

Overseas trading ventures by members of the Merchants House made Glasgow the world’s leading tobacco port and brought significant wealth to the city.

In the 17th and 18th centuries the Merchants formed a majority on the town council and every provost was drawn from their ranks. In 1973 an Act abolished non-elected posts on town councils and Mr Ronald will be invited to Glasgow City Council meetings in an honorary, non-voting capacity.

The Merchants House is now a major charitable institution and over the past five years it has committed over £2.5m of grants and other charitable financial assistance, principally to third sector organisations operating predominantly in Glasgow and the West of Scotland. One of the smaller trusts the House manages has a specific objective to distribute 1/7th of its annual income to charitable organisations in the Kirkintilloch/Lenzie area.

The building is situated at the corner of George Square and West George Street and has six floors of office space which produce rental income of approximately £340,000 per annum.

On Sunday, June 16, there will be the biennial Kirking of the House at Glasgow Cathedral, a service which will be led by Rev Mark Johnstone, the minister of the Cathedral, who formerly was minister at St Mary’s Parish Church in Kirkintilloch.