Steve Penny MBE

Steve Penny MBE

Scottish Mountain Rescue are absolutely delighted to be able to congratulate Steve Penny on receiving his MBE in Edinburgh for his services to Mountain Rescue.

Steve has spent 30 years volunteering for MR starting with Galloway MRT in 1991, before moving to the Scottish Borders and joining Tweed Valley MRT in January 1992. He joined SARDA that same year as a Search and Rescue Dog Handler. Throughout this time he has made a significant and ongoing contribution to Scottish MR at a local, regional and national level.

He served as Secretary of the Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland (now known as Scottish Mountain Rescue) between 2004 and 2010 and as Vice Chair from 2012 to 2016. Most recently, since 2018, Steve has taken on the role of Wellbeing Officer for Scottish Mountain Rescue.

Initially, Steve trained as a Search Manager in 1997 and introduced a structured approach to missing person searches to TVMRT. He is currently a member of the Search Management Working Group and heavily involved both as a trainer and in the ongoing development and refinement of the Scottish MR Search Management process.

Within TVMRT, Steve has held several team trustee positions including Secretary, Assistant Leader and several stints as Team Leader. He has been a Search Manager within the team since 1997. He has also been compiling and submitting TVMRT’s incident reports and annual summaries for over 20 years!

Steve has always had an interest in the wellbeing of volunteer responders and in 2017 he began a significant piece of work to introduce a Wellbeing Framework for volunteer mountain rescue responders. In 2019, this framework was rolled out across Scotland and is now forming the backbone of a wider UK Wellbeing initiative via UKSAR.

Steve dedicates an inordinate amount of time to MR issues, developing systems and strategies that benefit the organisation as a whole. He has responded to constant change with a proactive and structured management style. He has nurtured strong links with the police and other partnership groups locally across the Scottish Borders and nationally at Scottish and UK levels.

Steve Penny said, “You can’t volunteer as a responder without the support of family, and yesterday, at my investiture in Edinburgh, my wife Sarah was beside me all the way through – just like over the years of volunteering.  Thank you to my family.”

Steve Penny MBE – MRT Member, Dog Handler, Search Manager, Friend, Mentor, Wellbeing Officer & a True Gent