Howff – RBWF Presidents

Matthew McKerrow  1937 – 1943    Club Past President 1933 -34
H. G. McKerrow 1961 – 1962 Hon. Member
Ernest Robertson 1974 – 1975 Club Past President 1952 -54
Albert Finlayson 1978 – 1979 Hon. Member
Sam Gaw  1981 –  1982    Hon. Member
John Inglis  1984 –  1985 Hon. Member
Wilson Ogilvie  1985 – 1986 Hon. Member
Donald Urquhart 1991 – 1992 Club Past President 1984 -85
David Smith  1994 – 1995 Club Past President 1978- 79
Murdo Morrison  1995 – 1996  Hon. Member
B. David Baird  2010 – 2011 Club Past President 2005 -2006
Jane Brown  2013 – 2014 Hon. Member

Jane Brown Honorary – Club Member

Howff Club member are delighted about the recent election of Honorary club member and landlady of the Globe Inn, Jane Brown to the President of the Robert Burns World Federation for 2013 to 2014.  Jane has a busy year planned and will be attending events at home and abroad during her term in office

David Baird Robert Burn World Federation President 2011 to 2012

The club was delighted with the election of Hon. Treasurer David Baird, as president of the Robert Burns World Federation at the annual conference in Aberdeen in September 2010.  David is a past president of the club (2005 -6) and is currently president of the Southern Scottish Counties Burns Association

Address by David Baird,
It was with great pleasure that I welcomed my family, friends and fellow Burnsians to Aberdeen, to join with me to mark the occasion of my becoming President of The Robert Burns World Federation, in the 125th anniversary year of the Federation’s founding. It has been a long to journey to get to this point, starting with my father’s oft quoted words of Burns, Primary school at Ecclefechan, where we were force fed ‘Flow Gently Sweet Afton’ and latterly at Aberdeen University where I had the joy of rediscovering ‘The Jolly Beggars’. As an aside, being stranded in a broken down Holden on the Barkley Tablelands in Northern Australia in 1967, and being rescued by a farmer from Black

Braes Station on the 25th Jan, really did focus my mind on what wee bits o’ Burns’ stuff I knew, as I literally sang for my supper that night! I owe thanks to many people who have help me on the road to attaining the Presidency of The Robert Burns World Federation, not least of whom is the redoubtable David Smith, who has been my mentor through my Presidency of the Burns Howff Club, Dumfries and my current Presidency of the Southern Scottish Counties Burns Association. His sage wisdom has been a great support, and as a distinguished Past President of the Robert Burns World Federation, his advice and counsel has been invaluable. I am privileged to count him as a friend.

Behind every successful man, there is an even more successful woman!, and Ruth’s unerring judgement, support and ‘lengthened sage advices’, have been generously given.
I look forward to this year, and will do my very best to represent The Robert Burns World Federation as we travel within Great Britain, America, Canada and Australia, renewing auld acquaintances and making new friends.

“Then let us pray, that come it may,
(As come it will for a’ that,)
That Sense and Worth o’er a’ the earth,
Shall bear the gree, an’ a’ that.
For a’ that, an’ a’ that,
It’s coming yet for a’ that,
That man to man the world o’er,
Shall brithers be for a’ that.”

B. David Baird,
President, the Robert Burns World Federation,
2010 – 2011