Malcolm Grindrod MBE

We’re delighted that Malcolm Grindrod has been awarded the MBE for services to Mountain Rescue in the New Year’s Honours List. Since joining Coniston MRT in 1965, Malcolm has been involved with Mountain Rescue with Coniston and Langdale/Ambleside MRTs, and a search dog handler six times over since his first dog graded in 1974. (Picture)

Malcolm has been a formidable force in the training of search dogs in the Lake District, first with SARDA England, and then being a driving force in setting up Lake District Mountain Rescue Search Dogs in 1992. He was appointed as a Search Dog Assessor in 1975, and was Training Officer for SARDA for nearly ten years in the late seventies/early eighties. He was one of the first to realise the value of learning from overseas Associations, making visits to America, Norway, Bavaria and Iceland, and establishing methods of avalanche searching from what he had learned. He played a key part in organising searches following the Lockerbie disaster in 1988.

Even now, he is one of the first to offer training assistance to any handler who is struggling with a dog, and has given many hours to support the work of the Association.

This award to one of our founder members is well deserved and long overdue.