This year will see the opening of Tower Bridge’s bascules for the first time on Armistice Day as the country salutes it’s war dead thanks to the work of a Scottish Liberal Democrat MP.

Sir Robert and Mr SangsterSir Robert Smith, MP for West Aberdeenshire & Kincardine, was contacted by Mr Eric E. Sangster of Banchory, who had stopped to pay his own salute near the bridge a few years ago.

Mr Sangster noticed the traffic didn’t stop and Tower Bridge didn’t open and so asked his local MP, Sir Robert, if he could find a way for the bridge to halt and make a salute.

Sir Robert took up Mr Sangster request and worked with the City of London Corporation and Transport London to get an agreement for the bascules to be lifted this year with a view raising the bridge on November 11th every year.

Sir Robert commented:

“Mr Sangster came up with the suggestion and I thought it was a practical way to salute those we remember on Armistice Day. I am particularly pleased I have been able to work with the London authorities to get a successful outcome.”

Sir Robert and Mr Sangster have been invited by the Bridge Master Eric Sutherns to the control room where they will operate the machinery to raise Tower Bridge on Friday 11th November.

Mr Sangster, who served as an RAF mechanic between 1947 and 1950 and was later Steward at the Royal British Legion in Banchory, said:

“I am really pleased Sir Robert was able to help organise the lifting of the bascules on Tower Bridge and I am very honoured to be going there with him next week.”