MARTYN McLAUGHLIN and IAN BRUCE IT did not take long for word to spread around the east Ayrshire village of Muirkirk that one of its own was among the 15 British sailors being held in Iran.
Yesterday, friends and family of Danny Masterton, 26, a Royal Marine at the centre of a potentially perilous diplomatic stand-off struggled to come to terms with what had - and what may yet - happen.
Most of Mr Masterton's family stay in Muirkirk, including his parents, sister, Sarah, uncle David, and grandmother, Liz. His father, also Danny, is a former professional football player. His mother Christine is believed to be in hospital, combating a serious illness. They sought privacy yesterday via a Ministry of Defence press release.
"This remains a very distressing time for us and our family, and all the other families involved," it read. "Our thoughts are also with them, and all the Marines and Navy personnel caught up in this situation. We are grateful for the support shown to us by family, friends and colleaguest. Now, all we ask is that our privacy be respected."
James Kelly, East Ayrshire Council member for Muirkirk and a local resident, is a close friend of the Masterton family.
He said: "The whole village is devastated for Danny, and especially for his mum and dad. His mum's been through a tough time recently with her health, and this is hard for her. Young Daniel's her only son.
"I know them well. They're a smashing family who are well respected here. Young Danny is a great lad and he's a credit to the village.
"It's unbelievable people can treat him like they have. It's inhumane. Danny's family are feeling it. They're private, but they have the knowledge that the whole village is behind them."
Mr Kelly added: "If I could send Danny a message, I'd say, Hurry home, son'."
Best known for his time at Clyde FC in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Danny senior, 53, is held in high regard in Muirkirk for his service at Ayr United. He also played for Queen of the South, and later was an open cast miner in Muirkirk.
Marine Masterton is a member of the elite Fleet Standby Rifle Troop, based at Faslane on the Clyde The troop, part of the 530-strong Fleet Protection Group responsible for defending the UK's strategic submarine base, specialises in security and the boarding of hostile ships.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article