A Workington man was one of the last people to receive a special long service award from the Duke of Edinburgh.

Richard Wilson, 69, of Elterwater Avenue, received an award from Prince Philip at a garden party in the grounds of Holyrood Palace. It recognised him for spending 50 years of helping to deliver the Duke of Edinburgh scheme.

Prince Philip, who is 96, is retiring from royal duties this autumn so Richard was one of the last people to receive a long service award from the Duke himself.

The ceremony was also almost 50 years to the day since Richard received his own gold award from the Duke at Buckingham Palace.

"I didn't know until I got up to Holyrood," Richard said.

"I was helping people getting their gold awards and was asked to come and join this other group.

"I was with a group of about 20 other people who were all getting their long service awards but I was the only one getting the 50 years one.

"It was quite an important one because it was the last presentation the Duke of Edinburgh will ever do.

"It was very nice to shake hands with him and have a chat, he was in good form."

Richard, who currently coordinates the Duke of Edinburgh awards scheme through Cumbria Youth Alliance, completed his own awards while it was compulsory when he was an apprentice at British Steel.

After achieving his bronze, silver and gold awards, Richard was put in charge of co-ordinating the awards at the steelworks in Workington from 1964 until 1980.

He said: "It was a condition of your apprenticeship on the steelworks that you had to complete your silver award.

"I'd never done anything on the fells in my life but I've been involved ever since.

"I've been a youth worker all that time. I've helped hundreds of young people through the awards.

"I oversee young people on the expeditions and help train the volunteers.

"I'm involved with a lot of groups of young people and I'm currently helping about 400 people with their silver and gold awards.

"You do see a huge change in them when they get outdoors and do interesting things.

"It helps them to grow as a person and it always looks great on a CV."

And Richard believes there is no better place to complete the awards than in Cumbria.

"We have the best playground in the world just in our back yard but lots of young people don't really appreciate it is theirs," he said.

"They think it's just a holiday place for tourists."