{"id":44811,"date":"2026-07-31T12:51:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T12:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/44811\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T12:51:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T12:51:23","slug":"veteran-fundraiser-alistair-risk-receives-mbe-insignia-at-brora-golf-club-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/44811\/","title":{"rendered":"Veteran fundraiser Alistair Risk receives MBE insignia at Brora Golf Club ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Brora man who was named in the 2026 New Year Honours list has been presented with his MBE insignia.<\/p>\n

Alistair Risk (81), a retired hotel manager, was made an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in recognition of his exceptional voluntary service to charities and the local community.<\/p>\n

The silver, four-armed cross insignia was pinned to his lapel by Sutherland Lord-Lieutenant Patrick Marriott, on behalf of King Charles, in an outdoor ceremony at Brora Golf Club today (Friday, August 31) in bright sunshine.<\/p>\n

\"The\"TheThe silver, four-armed cross insignia was pinned to his lapel by Sutherland Lord-Lieutenant Patrick Marriott, on behalf of King Charles III, in an outdoor ceremony at Brora Golf Club today (Friday, August 31) in bright sunshine.<\/p>\n

Mr Risk\u2019s family, including his wife Fiona, son Alistair and daughter Karen, friends, and former colleagues were among those who attended the ceremony. Piper Billy McKechnie played as guests arrived.<\/p>\n

\"Alistair\"AlistairAlistair and Fiona Risk with family members.\"Piper\"PiperPiper Billy McKechnie played as guests arrived at Brora Golf Club.<\/p>\n

A dedicated Rotarian for 57 years, Mr Risk served in five different clubs. He founded and helped to run the East Sutherland branch of the Rotary Club for over 40 years.<\/p>\n

In June 2024, he received the \u201cService Above Self Award\u201d. This is widely considered to be Rotary International’s highest and most prestigious individual honour.<\/p>\n

Beyond Rotary, his efforts have directly benefited local youth ventures, community fetes, golf clubs, churches and heritage projects. He has also raised funds for national and international causes including the Polio Plus Campaign, as well as for Ukrainian war refugees and victims of the 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake.<\/p>\n

His fundraising efforts have had a significant impact, raising between \u00a3500,000 and \u00a31 million for various good causes.<\/p>\n

Despite battling illness, he recently organised concerts at St Columba’s Episcopal Church (The Tin Tabernacle) in Brora to raise money for Clan Cancer Support.<\/p>\n

Lord-Lieutenant Marriott described Mr Risk as a \u201cman of integrity, extraordinary generosity, great courage and love\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cAlistair is what I would call an exemplar. I think he has genuinely inspired countless others to become volunteers and what greater tribute can there be than that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Risk said that he would not have been able to raise funds without the support of others, especially his wife, Fiona, and his children..<\/p>\n

He also revealed that a memoir of his life would be published on September 2 with proceeds from sales going towards Brora Heritage, the new museum opened at the redeveloped Old Clyne School in Brora.<\/p>\n

Dr Nick Lindsay, chairman of Clyne Heritage Society, has helped Mr Risk with the book project.<\/p>\n

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here<\/a> to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Brora man who was named in the 2026 New Year Honours list has been presented with his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[55,44,1089,238,2370],"class_list":["post-44811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-community","tag-golf","tag-human-interest","tag-latest-news","tag-update-me"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}