THE man who started an educational facility which has seen many people from the Cowdenbeath-Lochgelly area pick up key qualifications was a community man who was always happy to take on board difficult tasks.

George Lauder was the person who led the way to a technical college being opened in West Fife and Cowdenbeath Rotary Club heard on Thursday how he also was a key player on fresh water supplies being piped in to Dunfermline.

West and Central Fife historian, Frank Connelly, who last year helped launch an Old Cowdenbeath DVD with Bill Livingston, which sold well in the area, was the guest speaker and his subject was George Lauder.

He was the man who the technical college in Dunfermline was named after which was launched in the late 1890s and later became Carnegie College and is now called Fife College.

Frank said: "George Lauder was an uncle to Andrew Carnegie and was born in 1815 in Leith but was to move to Dunfermline where he worked in a snuff mill.

"He got very involved in the town's community and became a councillor and when his wife died from an illness picked up from the water supply he started to look at how water could be piped in to homes.

"It took him time to get everyone convinced it was the way ahead to ensure pure water supplies but soon Glendevon was the source of clean water going into homes.

"Always keen on education and giving people the chance to learn he persuaded his nephew, Andrew Carnegie, to help establish the Dunfermline Technical School which was eventually called Lauder College.

"Many people from the Cowdenbeath area, over the years, have gained qualifications from that facility which have helped their vocations develop."

Frank explained that the 200th anniversary of George Lauder's birth was celebrated last year and members of his family from the USA attended a special event which turned out to be highly successful and the visitors committed themselves to keeping the family link with the college in Dunfermline.