A long-serving editor who stepped down last year after 40 years with an independent publisher has been named in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

Bryan Armstrong started out as a compositor at the Dumfries-based DNG Media group before moving into photography and ultimately the editor’s chair.

He edited the group’s four titles – the Annandale Observer, Dumfries Courier, Moffat News and Annandale Herald – from 1994 until 2018 before going freelance.

Now he has been recognised for services to journalism and the community in Scotland by being named an MBE in the honours list published on Saturday.

Bryan, pictured above, is joined on the list by retired police officer Colin Dorrance, from Lockerbie.

Both men were among the first on the scene of the Lockerbie Disaster in 1988 – Colin as an 18-year-old police officer, Bryan as a reporter.

Bryan told his former paper’s website: ““I never saw this coming.

“I feel surprised and somewhat humbled that someone has taken the trouble to nominate me.

“I’ve been writing about and photographing honours recipients most of my working life, all very deserving people, but never expected to see my name there.”

“In accepting, cautiously, I see it as a chance to highlight the work local journalists are doing week-in, week out in communities up and down the country.”