Tribute to Sandy
Today cannot be described under any measure as a happy day, as we few are gathered in our sadness to mourn the passing of a beloved husband, a much-loved uncle, son in law and a true and loyal friend. In less difficult times many, many more of us would have been here today to give comfort and support to Nicky and to honour a man, who throughout his life played such a huge part in all of our lives.
In writing this short tribute, I found it really difficult to put into words a description that would form anything like a complete picture of the man Sandy Russell.
In his life, Sandy touched the lives of a great number of people and played a leading role in the many groups and organisations he was part of. His interest and participation in these made him many friends and earned him a huge amount of respect.
In his early days he was very much absorbed in Youth and Community work through his involvement in the old High Kirk and, a stage career with the High and Inveresk Church Drama Groups. I had a part in one of these productions alongside Sandy more than fifty years ago and even now, after all this time, I still have moments when I cringe at how bad I was. I’m sure Sandy was a whole lot better than me, which wouldn’t have been hard:  But good or bad he decided to stick to the ‘day job’.
Sandy was a skilful television engineer, the man who used to come to your house to repair your tele in the days when tv sets broke down and needed fixed. (I just have a picture of him, head down poking around in the back of the tele, then picking it up and telling the customer bluntly and without flinching “It’ll have to go back to the workshop, you should get it back on Friday”, leaving the poor customer bereft with an empty tv table. That maybe didn’t make him too many friends among to his customers, but again he made many good friends among his colleagues in the trade.
One thing that I had forgotten  about and it only recently come to mind is that quite early on in his career and I can’t quite remember  when, Sandy was chosen by The District Rotary  to join a group of young people representing their various occupations to go on an exchange - visit to America to experience ways of working there. I do recall though, that he found this a remarkably interesting and valuable experience that for quite some time after he had to share in talks at many Rotary Clubs that formed the District Rotary.
The Television and Radio business though was in Sandy’s blood. His father Hugh was the manager of Lowes Relay, the radio and tv business in Musselburgh High Street and Sandy, his father and mother Chrissie and his sister the late  Betty all lived for many years in the house above the shop, we have fond memories of all of them. As technology moved on and TV engineers were needed less, he went on to work with the Royal Bank and Standard Life until he finally retired.
Outside of work Sandy had a wide range of sporting interests, not just an interest, but he actually took part in these at much more than a competent level. They included, as far as I remember, tennis, cricket, golf, curling and of course rugby, although I would quickly add that his participation in that last one was very much limited to spectating and socialising, both of which he did with enthusiasm, but again, as always, forming many lasting  friendships along the way.
Of all Sandy’s interests and involvements though, I’m sure you would agree that The Honest Toun’s Association and Musselburgh Festival were probably closest to his heart and he made an outstanding contribution to their continuing success. He joined the Executive Committee back in the early seventies and from day one, threw himself into the work of the committee with enthusiasm, heading up most if not all of the Festival events at one time or other. I joined the committee a couple of years after Sandy and spent many happy years after that working with him and the others on the committee at that time, which I and I’m sure these other guys around found quite challenging at times. Sandy was a leader not a follower and you had to run quite fast to keep up with him. Talking about leaders and running behind him.  I vividly remember one Festival Dinner, Sandy was in the chair as President and I was at the end of the top table as Vice President and the Honest lad of that year, a bit of a wag at best,  in his speech, thanked and praised Dastardly and Muttley for putting on a good show, that must have been the image we created, who knows?
 When all was not going too well with the Association in the late seventies, we seemed to be losing some of our public support and certainly financially it wasn’t looking good at all, in fact we had reached a place where we had just about run out of money. Undaunted though, Sandy was up there with the ideas and the courage to rescue the situation and by recruiting the help of the Honest Lads and Lasses and many others, the years of the big fundraisers was born, starting with the popular at the time, cheese and wine parties and then moving on to the legendary race nights, they were hard work but a huge social and financial success.
In 1981, Sandy became President of the Association, a position he held until 1985, and during his reign and beyond we had no doubt who was in charge.
The troops though, Muttley included, didn’t always agree with him, but no matter how heated the debate became or the eventual outcome, it was a mark of Sandy’s character and style that friendships were never affected nor spoiled and Muttley never ever did bite Dastardly, at least not so hard that anyone would notice. The worst that ever happened was that we agreed to differ.
During his years on the HTA committee and as President, Sandy was a single man, but his bachelor days were soon to be over. In 1986 he and Nicky were married, I’ll bet he thought being president of the HTA was challenging. I was honoured to be best man at their wedding and during their 34 years of marriage, Margaret and I have enjoyed a lasting and enjoyable friendship with them both, as have many of their other friends.
They were welcoming and more than generous hosts, a pleasure to have as guests and quite simply, great company.  We have shared many good times and happy occasions with them and a few less happy too of course, but the happy times far outweighed these. These days won’t return just as they were, but we will always have the happiest of memories of them.
2020, to put it mildly, has not been a good year for most of us, but for Sandy and Nicky it has brought more than its share of anguish and pain. But we must pay tribute to the way Sandy so bravely faced his deteriorating health and to Nicky for the unfailing love, care and support she gave him. It has been a long and difficult road for them both.
We have to be thankful too for the medical care he received, and in particular the loving care and attention from everyone at St Columba’s Hospice. With particular thanks to the Revd. Suzie Stark, chaplain at St Columba’s, who was a great comfort to Sandy, and to Nicky, in the final weeks and days of Sandy’s illness.
We are also so grateful to her for conducting this service here today.
I will close now by simply saying
Well done Sandy Russell!
We will miss you sorely, but we will not forget you.