City Chambers suite renamed to honour Registrar, 39, who died after 23 years' service

The family of a dad-of-three who died suddenly in May are ‘honoured’ that his place of work, the City Chambers Registrars’ office, has named the ceremony suite in his honour.

Alex Currie.

It will now be known as the ‘Alexander Suite’, in honour of Alex Currie, also known as ‘Skippy’, after an official ceremony at the City Chambers last Saturday.

Mr Currie joined the Registrars’ Office on work experience at the age of 15, and had been there ever since until his untimely death at the age of 39.

The ceremony was held on what would have been his 40th birthday.

Mr Curries three children, Neve, 16 Max, 13 and Hana, 11 cut the ribbon to officially open the suite under its new name.

After completing his work experience Mr Currie was placed on a Youth Training Scheme across several departments, after which he settled as a Registrar.

“He stayed at the Registrars’ Office with the same people, and they basically brought him up,” said Mr Currie’s widow, Gail Currie.

“Given the nature of the work, dealing with intimate life events like births, marriages, and deaths, they ended up very close.”

Ms Currie said it was an “touching tribute” for Alex to be given a lasting legacy in this way.

“You could tell he was respected at work,” she added.

“The line managers always said that if there was any difficult task that had to be done, Alex would be the one to put his hand up.”

“It’s lovely for us that they would think of him, and honour him in that way. It’s a way of showing the kids that their dad is someone to be proud of.”

Mr Currie’s three children, Neve, 16, Max, 13, and Hana, 11 cut the ribbon to officially open the suite under its new name.

A photo of Mr Currie will sit on the mantelpiece of the suite so that his legacy is not forgotten.

Karen Watson, Registration Service Manager, was a colleague of Mr Currie.

“We really wanted to remember him, he was such a big part of everybody’s life,” she said.

“All of us worked with Alex at some time, he was a really important member of the team.”

In his 23 years Mr Currie registered over 1000 births, deaths, and marriages a year.

A staunch Hearts fan, one of his most memorable moments as Registrar was conducting a ceremony at the Hibs Stadium on Easter Road… wearing a Hearts tie!