Establishment 2000

Crew Level 2004

The Staff are 4 Masters and 1 Mistress.

The present machines at Stn 39 are D358VSA and WSE293Y. The D reg. pump arrived in 2000 and is on fire call. The older Y reg. pump is used only for training purposes within the school grounds. (14/1/2002)

The unit does not have BA due to Health and Safety regulations and is not likely to get it. (2004)

GORDONSTOUN SCHOOL FIRE BRIGADE NOTES

During the war the school was evacuated to Llandinan in Montgomeryshire.
The fire brigade was formed by boy Stephen Philip.
The first known vehicle was an Austin seven seater tourer in 1931 which carried an extension ladder, foam extinguisher and 40 gallons of water. This vehicle was later replaced by a 1922 V8 Cadilac and subsequently by an Austin STU which towed a Beresford-Stork trailer pump of Home Office type.
The school returned to Duffas in 1945 and had an Austin STU equipped with a Standard Gwynne pump carried inside the vehicle. It could also tow a Harland large trailer pump if required to.
In 1956 a Fordson motor pump was acquired and this towed a Beresford Stork trailer pump.
In 1964 GXM782? a Dennis motor pump (limosine style) was stationed at the school.
(Notes by Jimmy Slater?)

Gordonstoun School Volunteer Fire Unit

Gordonstoun School, situated on the Moray Firth Coast, must be one of the best known Public Schools in Britain and it may seem rather strange that a School having had members of the Royal Family as pupils would encourage both boys and girls to become Volunteer members of a Fire Brigade.
I am certain that a number of our readers must be rather sceptical of young people being able to take a serious role in such a Service as ours. I hope this article may dispel some of their misgivings.
Dr. Kurt Hahn’s (the founder of the School) insistance that young people should be educated to serve the community is never more apparent than in Gordonstoun’s Rescue Services. An important feature of the training given to pupils is that it is designed to meet the needs of the local community; to integrate the School into local affairs, and to foster in their participants a pride in achievement and a sense of belonging. The Fire Service is only one of the many Services that a pupil may join.
The Voluntary unit forms part of Grampian Fire Brigade and responds, during the School term, as an additional appliance to all incidents attended by the Retained Station at Lossiemouth.
The unit comprises fourteen pupils, split almost equally between boys, girls and five Masters. Only one Master forms part of the crew and, as well as being the driver, is the Officer-In-Charge. Pupils become members at the age of 16 after having done a year’s basic training, and then only with their parents consent and undergoing a medical.
The present Officer-In-Charge of the unit is the School’s Chaplain, Canon Montgomery, who has been known to shed his cassock midway through the sermon to become Sub Officer Montgomery at the first sound of the siren.
The unit attends some 60-70 calls per School year. Some pupils have chalked up over 100 calls in the three years that they have been members. Apart from the usual domestic and rural type of fire, some of the more recent incidents were a train derailment at Lhanbryde, an aircraft crash at RAF Lossiemouth and more recently a four pump fire at Duffus House which is part of the School.
The appliance is equipped and maintained by Grampian Fire Brigade and, with the exception of Breathing Apparatus, carries the same equipment as any other Water Tender in the Brigade.
Training is supervised by the Station Officer at Elgin and the Divisional Training Officer. A Wednesday afternoon will see one crew training at Elgin, while the other members of the unit train on a second appliance which is owned by the School and is only used within the School grounds. Combined training does take place with the Retained Station at Lossiemouth in the form of off-station exercises.
There are very few incidents where a girl is not a member of the crew. At first people were surprised to see a girl tackling a fire, though it does take some hard looking to make out the female form wearing fire gear.
This year, Captain of the Fire Service is a girl who has attended over 100 calls and when recently asked by a member of the press what incident particularly stuck in her memory she recalled a rather nasty road traffic accident and when it was suggested that she was too young to experience such macabre accidents she replied — ‘One never enjoys such incidents, it is only when you remember the School motto — there is more in you than you think — that you realise what you are able to do’.
<PHOTO> Gordonstoun School’s team of firefighters and Canon Montgomery, with their fire tender (JSA662F)
<PHOTO> Station 39 Gordonstoun. (
(Northern Light Edition No.11. Page 25.)

If you know of any mistakes in this or have any additional information please let me know.