End of the Pier showon a perfect Sunday

The day wound up with a big screen presentation of all the achievements and successes of the past year.

Two notable and historic Scout anniversaries were celebrated on the day – the Beaver Section’s 30th birthday and the Cub section’s 100 years since it’s formation – with a wide range of special Big Adventures for six to eight year olds.

Ending at the marina instead of Queensferry Parish Church, more than 100 young people took part in the annual service of celebration and thanks.

The organisers have passed on their thanks to the various leaders, all volunteers, for developing the organisations’ programmes and conveying those programmes to the young people through their regular weekly meetings, weekend activities, camps and other outside pursuits.

The parade was a high point of a day which saw scores of day-trippers basking in Indian Summer weather.

Uniformed personnel of a different kind also coincidentally appeared at Hawes Pier on Sunday as South Queensferry Fire Station crew manager Paul Watson laid on an expert, no-punches-pulled crash course in how to deal with motorbike accidents, in front of a large audience of assembled bike enthusiasts.

Staged in the RNLI boathouse, the demonstration showed how relatively simple techniques can be literally life-saving, and is the latest in a series of pioneering initiatives carried out by local firemen.

It is the only course of its kind on the east coast, and is reckoned to have boosted the survival rates from serious accidents by almost one in five.