40th Anniversary of Abercrombie House
Monday 23 November, 1981 – Lord Carrington officially opens Abercrombie House
Abercrombie House was officially opened by then-Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington and began life with around 350 staff.
New recruits start work at Abercrombie House
Forty years ago, the first people arrived for work at the newly constructed Abercrombie House. At the time, it was built as part of an expansion of the Overseas Development Administration (part of the Foreign Office) to create jobs in East Kilbride, near Glasgow. It was then the Department for International Development’s joint HQ before being given the same status when the FCDO was formed following last September’s merger with FCO and DFID.
Football legend Ally McCoist has paid tribute to 26 civil servants who have served the full 40 years at a Government building he worked in when it opened. The former Rangers and Scotland striker was one of 350 staff recruited when the then Overseas Development Administration opened Abercrombie House in East Kilbride in 1981. Ally juggled his role as a Clerical Assistant playing part-time for St Johnstone but left Abercrombie House after five months when he signed for Sunderland.
Rangers and Scotland hero Ally McCoist was one of Abercrombie House’s original employees
He said: “It’s amazing to think that 26 of the people I worked with when Abercrombie House first opened are still there today. If you ask me, they all deserve a George Cross in recognition of that service. It was a massive boost for East Kilbride that building opening. I still remember my first day, getting off the No77 bus from Calderwood, and walking into this amazing new place as a civil servant. My mum and dad clearly knew what I wanted to do with my life, but they’d made sure I’d kept up with my schoolwork and were proud as punch I’d got the ODA job.”
1,500 jobs by 2025
Abercrombie House currently boasts 1,000 staff based in East Kilbride. The newly formed FCDO is committed to redeploying a further 500 jobs by 2025, as part of the UK Government’s levelling up agenda. Today Abercrombie House generates an estimated £30 million per annum to the local economy.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: “Our 1,000 staff in Scotland can proudly celebrate 40 years of Abercrombie House having been at the forefront of making the UK a world-leading diplomatic and development superpower. I’m looking forward to building on Abercrombie House’s impressive history, as we position the UK at the heart of an unrivalled global network of economic, diplomatic and security partnerships to deliver for the British people. The commitment to redeploy a further 500 jobs to our joint HQ by 2025, as part of the UK Government’s levelling up agenda, ensures Scottish voices will play a pivotal role in using our £10 billion aid budget to combat climate change and bounce back from the Covid pandemic.”