There can be few constituencies in the UK that can have the claim to have had only two MPs over a period of 64 years.

Mr Brown stood in what was the ‘new’ Dunfermline East Constituency in 1983 as a very young candidate and was to successfully fight seven General Elections, one of them for the newly created seat of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, which also contained the Cowden-Gelly area.

As he rose through the Labour ranks to become Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer and then Chancellor, before eventually becoming Prime Minister, he was always keen to promote the constituency and its people.

So it is the end of a political era as Mr Brown seeks to up his work with the United Nations as a commissioner whose task it is to seek security and a good quality education for children across the world.

But as one chapter closes a new one opens and in the New Year the various parties, including Labour, will be naming the people who will fight Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath at the May General Election.

Whoever wins will be a fresh face and the people will be looking for the same hard work and commitment to the area their MP has shown from 1950 to 2014.

Jim Stark