Queen’s Baton Makes a Splash at Petrofac Training Services

The Queen’s Baton made a splash at Petrofac’s Aberdeen Marine Training Centre facilities today as it toured the Granite City in the run-up to next month’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

The Queen's Baton Relay is a relay around 70 nations and territories prior to the beginning of the Commonwealth Games. The baton carries a message from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth as Head of the Commonwealth.  The baton’s 40-day tour of Scotland, from the Borders to Shetland Islands, will see it visit all local authority areas in the hands of 4,000 baton bearers; starting in Edinburgh on 18 June, and arriving at the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony at Celtic Park on 23 July.

Aberdeen Football Club legend Willie Miller MBE teed off at 8am at Royal Aberdeen Golf Club to mark the start of the relay through the city of Aberdeen.  At around 3pm, the baton arrived at our Aberdeen Quay facilities and was plunged into Aberdeen Harbour in spectacular fashion by our freefall lifeboat. It then travelled in convoy around the harbour, providing a unique vantage point to recognise Aberdeen's maritime history, its diversity of industry and scenic coastal location.

The baton bearer for this part of the journey was Colin Wallace who was chosen from hundreds of applications.  Colin, along with his police escorts, had undertaken training and a run through of what would happen on the day, at our facilities last Friday.

The training covered the security of the baton bearer and the escorts as well as the baton itself.  The baton was secured in the lifeboat for the freefall into high tide then held high by Colin, while strapped to his wrist, on its boat journey to Telford dock.

Dawn Schultz, City Promotions Manager at Aberdeen City Council said: “We were delighted to have the baton venture over sea, with the help of Petrofac, to highlight the maritime and energy industry which is at the heart of our city.”