Yahoo News Annan to crown 75th Queen of the Border at special ceremony
Annan will crown its 75th Queen of the Border in an open air ceremony on the High Street stage at 7pm tonight.
Teenager Macy Oliver will continue the tradition, which started with the first Annan Riding of the Marches and gala day queen, Anne Weightman, who has crowned in 1949.
For 13-year-old Annan Academy pupil Macy, tonight’s public crowning ceremony, with her champion Lloyd Downie by her side, will be a “dream come true”.
On Tuesday she was thrilled to meet a former Queen of the Border from 1955 Elma Harrison (then, Currie) who gave her plenty of tips and good wishes for her special ceremony.
The occasion will be especially poignant for Macy and her family who usually gather on ROM day at her great-grandparents’ home in Newington Road for the celebrations.
She said: “I’m doing this in memory of my nan – Jane Ferguson – whom I miss so much.
“She would love that I am lucky enough to be Queen of the Border.
“Unfortunately, 2023 was our last ROM at Newington Road, so becoming Queen of the Border is a dream come true as I’m able to give my family a new way of celebrating this year.”
Macy, who has represented Scotland in dance at both juvenile and junior levels with the Maureen Smith Dance Academy, is from a family of ROM supporters with parents, Vicki and Paul, in the former Maclean Pipe Band and then the Royal Burgh of Annan Pipe Band.
Her great-uncle Dick Mossop was standard bearer in 2004 and her cousin Alia Lupton was in the royal retinue last year.
This year’s retinue includes: ladies in waiting Maddie Irving and Imogen Cairns; heralds Emma Irving and Ellie Mitchell; crown bearer Theo Nicholson; sceptre bearer Paighton Gallagher, gift bearer Lexi Mulvenna; trainbearers Polly Dinnin and Georgia Gilfillan; and flowergirls Emilia Evans, Harper Thomson and Lillie Riddick.
It will be a big weekend too for this year’s principals Annan Cornet Ewan Murray, Cornet’s Lass Kirstin Kerr and Standard Bearer Jennifer Park, with the Kirkin’ of the Cornet on Sunday meeting at the town hall at 10.45am for a parade to the war memorial to lay a wreath ahead of the service in Annan Old Parish Church at
11.15am.
