Real lives: Hats off to William as he shuts the door on career

WILLIAM Yorkston doesn't quite know where to start when he is asked if he would have any claims to fame, he tells John Gibson.

"I was never destined to be famous, but if you twisted my arm I'd probably start with my earliest school days.

"I was a pupil at Towerbank Primary in my native Portobello and I was in the same class as Kenny Buchanan who was to become famous as a boxer. I've dined out on that over the years."

William retires on his 65th birthday from the Glasshouse Hotel at Greenside, where he has been doorman these past six years.

He joined the 65-room Glasshouse direct from the same occupation at The Macdonald Holyrood for five years.

"I seemed to have the temperament for standing around the door and, I like to think, a welcoming word and smile for guests," he says. "I won't miss them entirely because the new Glasshouse manager, Pamela McAllister, will be taking me back part-time three days a week."

He left Portobello Senior Secondary at 15 to embark on his second "claim to fame", explaining: "My first job was in Princes Street. My first job was with Singers, the nationally-known sewing machine specialists. Singers in those days was a household name.

"Moving on, I must have had a hundred jobs. I was a coal porter, a cinema projectionist at the George, Portobello, I sewed sacks for a flour mill and, in a relatively sophisticated switch, I became a van boy with Smiths the bakers at Hawkhill."

He was first married at 21, to a tailoress. That partnership lasted five years and he was 50 before he married again. His current wife, Phyllis, worked in the City Chambers for many years.

On the door he has never worn the peaked cap, part of the acknowledged doorman's garb. "General manager Daniel Pereira, who hired me at the Glasshouse, had no problem with that. Given a choice, I opted for a soft hat, a fedora, and I went for a long overcoat rather than a frock coat. I preferred the touch of informality."

GULLANE Primary School is set to bid farewell to long-serving teacher Pearl Smith, after she retired from a career in education spanning nearly 40 years.

Miss Smith, of Gullane, had worked at the school for eight years following spells at George Heriot's School, Aberlady Primary and North Berwick Nursery.

Miss Smith, who is soon to turn 60, completed her last lesson on December 23. She plans to continue her work in Haddington as a justice of the peace.

Headteacher Maureen Tremmel said that her retirement was a "huge loss to the profession". "Teachers like Miss Smith, with the experience that they bring, are almost irreplaceable.

"She completely understood small children and what they needed."