her daughter Nicola receive the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award from Prince Philip at last week's Government House ceremony.

Just over 30 years ago, Mrs. Griffiths had also received her `Gold' from the Prince at Buckingham Palace. They are Bermuda's first `mother and daughter' gold medallists in the Awards, established by Prince Philip in 1959. As part of their programme, both of them also completed the rigorous Outward Bound Scheme in Wales.

"Lawrence Trimingham, Awards coordinator, mentioned the fact that we were mother and daughter during the ceremony -- and also said that within the next five years, they are expecting a third generation of family `Golds'. That must be very gratifying for Prince Philip to see that his scheme has gained such momentum. His own son, Prince Edward also has the `Gold' and is eventually expected to take over from his father.'' Noting that she has been involved with the local branch of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards since her arrival here in 1969, Mrs. Griffiths explains that she has been a ranger leader for the Girl Guides as well as an advisor for the scheme. "So I helped around 19 girls do their gold awards and, I think, around 100 altogether, over the years. Nicola was a very keen gymnast, so I certainly didn't expect her to be interested. But when I started with the other girls, she said she wanted to do it.'' The Bermuda branch of the scheme, founded by the late Alan Brown in 1968, now boasts many `Golds' and explains Mrs. Griffiths, "an important part of the programme is community service with young people training and working in many different fields. It's a generational thing which, I think, helps bring the community together as adult `Gold' winners help the younger ones coming up.'' Nicola, currently completing a year of work experience in Bermuda as part of her business degree course at Sheffield University, used her skills as a gymnast when she coached others for her `service' section and, to demonstrate her `skills', she chose the violin.

Mrs. Griffiths says the strong bond between `Gold' winners is world-wide.

"Every four years the Scheme sends representatives to different parts of the world to do community work. I represented Bermuda when the Scheme went to Hong Kong, where we built picnic areas and worked on a housing survey project for the government. People came from all over the Commonwealth and it was a wonderful experience.''