The charity, Veterans Housing Scotland, welcomed HRH The Princess Royal, on a visit to Earl Haig Gardens in Edinburgh to meet some of their residents.
Her Royal Highness, who is the charity’s patron, chatted with representatives from the maintenance organisations which care for the properties, Campbell Stafford and McBean, in the useful marquee pitched in the central area.
She then stepped inside number 14 where Tommy and Yvonne Douglas have lived for 17 years. Mr Douglas was in the Royal Scots, and is a veteran of Northern Ireland. He received the British Empire Medal in the King’s Honours 2025. Tommy said: “This is the first veterans housing estate established after the end of WWI, and it’s great living beside like-minded people. We really are a community that helps each other out in times of need and there is always someone you can rely on.”
Peter Malone, (79) and his wife Joyce, are also long term residents in Earl Haig Gardens for the last 24 years. He was also in the Royal Scots and was based first at Tidworth, and passed his training in Berwick on Tweed, before being posted to Aden, Germany, and France.
Yvonne said: “It’s the people who make this place special. They all seem to understand what each other is going through. Lots of younger people are coming in now. We used to be the youngest!”
To mark her visit HRH planted a magnolia tree at the diametrically opposite corner of the communal garden in front of the houses from the tree which Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II planted during a visit accompanied by HRH Prince Philip in 2007.
HRH became patron of the charity in 2024, and this was her first visit to one of the VHS communities. This is a housing development established in 1919 when Lord Salvesen, Chairman of the Scottish Veterans Garden CIty Association, laid the foundation stone. During the visit HRH met charity ambassador, Leonard Harper Gow, the great grandson of the founder.
The 31 houses are built in the garden of Mayfield House which formerly belonged to the Salvesen family.
The small housing estate was opened on 1 October 1921 by Field Marshall Earl Haig, and carved tablets commemorate the sons of local families, including the Salvesens, who died in action in the First World War.
Veterans Housing Scotland is the leading provider of homes for disabled veterans in Scotland and has a portfolio of 630 homes across Scotland.
