Fleming: man who broke the mould
TOM CURTIS
The Scots vote for their favourite Scots
DOERS have triumphed over thinkers in an exclusive Scotland on Sunday poll to find the Greatest Ever Scot.
Sir Alexander Fleming - the man who saved millions of lives by discovering penicillin - is the runaway winner of our poll, closely followed by William Wallace and Robert the Bruce.
Robert Burns is the highest-placed artist at number four, but philosopher David Hume - perhaps the most brilliant mind ever to come out of Scotland - trailed in last.
Hume’s friend Adam Smith - the father of economics - came eighth, and the creator of Scotland’s romantic image of itself, Sir Walter Scott, was 11th.
The results of the poll led to claims last night that Scots are obsessed with "a culture of tartan, sprigs of heather and Scottie dogs". One commentator claimed Wallace’s position was due only to the Hollywood movie, and another said it showed Scots were more concerned with failure than success.
We surveyed 1,000 people of all ages and from every region of Scotland. They were given a list of 12 famous Scots - all dead - and asked who deserved the title Greatest Ever Scot.
Fleming bagged 26% of the votes of those canvassed by Scottish Opinion, way ahead of his competitors the Bruce, Wallace, Donald Dewar, Keir Hardie, David Livingstone, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Hume, Burns, Scott, Smith and James Watt.
Dewar managed a highly respectable fifth place in the poll, followed by the engineering hero of schoolboys, Watt. Then it was Livingstone, while Mackintosh tied for eighth with Smith, and Keir Hardie came 10th.
Nobel prize winner Fleming won out despite having his reputation diminished in recent years by critics who pointed out he left it to others to turn his find into an effective medicine.
He polled 259 votes which were evenly spread across Scotland, except in Tayside, where 40% put him top of their list. Support for him was higher among women at 31% than men, at 20%, but varied little with age.
But although Fleming came across the mould which became the mother of antibiotics almost by accident in 1928, he had few detractors last night.
Dr Gerard Carruthers, lecturer in literature at Glasgow University and an expert on Scottish identity, said: "I think he’s quite a heartening choice. Obviously he belongs to the tourist tea-towel litany of great Scottish inventors but he has perhaps made the most lasting contribution. It was a contribution to the health of the whole world."
Even John Anderson, who runs the McBraveheart website devoted to all things William Wallace, said: "I wouldn’t argue too much about him and Wallace. People seem to like people who’ve had big scientific achievements."
Hume’s supporters were less pleased. Dr Madsen Pirie, president of the right-wing think tank the Adam Smith Institute, said: "It’s a pity that Scots seem better disposed to the culture of tartan, sprigs of heather and Scottie dogs than they are to the true great thinkers who helped shape the world."
He said Smith, whose Wealth of Nations was possibly the most influential economic treatise ever written and created the concept of the market economy, should have taken equal top spot with Hume.
"Hume was one of those who helped define modern philosophy and the way we think. He helped dispose of the medieval notion of scholasticism, that you can know things by mysterious insight, and made the world rational."
He added: "Burns was undoubtedly a very talented writer and it’s heretical to say this, but one rather wishes he were given the literary respect he deserves instead of being an icon of Scottish kitsch."
Making a final swipe, he said: "Robert the Bruce doesn’t represent where Scotland is now. Hume and Smith play for Scotland on a world stage even now. He does not."
Burns was most popular among the middle-aged, polling 14% of votes from 45-64-year-olds, but his chances of success in future polls look bleaker after he gathered only 4% support from 18-24-year-olds.
Gerard Carruthers said: "His fame is dying as the generations go by. As a human being he is perhaps the most recognisable Scot, and he and Scott broadcast the name of Scotland more widely across the world than anyone else."
He added: "Wallace would not have been on this list before Braveheart was made."
Former Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind said: "Wallace was a remarkable figure. But I think sometimes in Scotland we concern ourselves more with people who failed than those who succeeded."
Education minister Cathy Jamieson, whose Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley constituency includes Keir Hardie’s original stomping grounds, said: "I’d rate him very, very highly and would have probably put him higher up the list. He made a great contribution to Labour and many of the things he stood for were picked up by the Scottish Labour Party and followed through, such as the Scottish Parliament itself."
She added: "What Donald Dewar epitomises is the delivery of the parliament after all those years of campaigning. He played a huge role in that and deserves to be up there."
Dewar, who died in 2000, was named greatest Scot by 10% of women, compared with 4% of men.
David Whitton, his former spokesman, said: "I’m biased, but I’d put him in any list of the greatest Scots. He delivered something the majority had wanted for a very long time."
The nation’s pioneers who changed the world
1. Sir Alexander Fleming discoverer of penicillin
Born in 1881, near Darvel, Ayrshire, Fleming was educated
at Kilmarnock Academy and London University. He served as a captain in the Army
Medical Corps during the First World War, returning to the university’s St
Mary’s medical school.
In 1928, while working, Fleming found mould growing in one of his Petri dishes which appeared to have killed the bacteria around it. The mould turned out to be a variety called penicillium, and the discovery led to the first antibiotics.
His conviction that natural substances could combat infection proved visionary and his discovery was the basis of the most effective life-saving drug in the world, a find which would almost eradicate some of the world’s oldest afflictions, including syphilis and tuberculosis. Knighted in 1944, he won a share of a Nobel prize in 1945. He died in 1955.
Critics might argue that Fleming did not produce penicillin as an effective medicine: growing and refining it was achieved by a team of chemists and mould experts.
The power of antibiotics also made many clinicians complacent about infectious disease, believing it could be almost wiped out, but bacteria which develop resistance have since become one of modern medicine’s biggest challenges.
2. William Wallace - war leader
BORN about 1274, probably in Renfrewshire, he headed the 1297 rising against the English, and defeated them at Stirling Bridge. The next year he was defeated by Edward I at Falkirk, after which, deserted by the Scottish nobles, he started a guerrilla war. After being imprisoned in France, whose help he had sought, he was declared an outlaw in 1304 and was captured and sent to London, where he was hanged in 1305.
A gifted general, Wallace managed to turn a disorganised mass of fighting men into a fearsome army capable of inflicting defeat on one of England’s most successful conquering kings. He became a symbol of Scottish defiance against English imperialism.
3. Robert the Bruce - King of Scotland
BORN in 1274, probably in Turnberry, Bruce joined Wallace’s revolt against England in 1297 and later became a guerrilla leader - going on to achieve much more success than Wallace. Bruce was crowned King Robert I in 1306 despite civil strife, he won control of northern Scotland and by 1314 had taken Edinburgh and Roxburgh, leaving Stirling the only English stronghold north of the Forth.
Defeated Edward II’s much larger army at Bannockburn in 1314, effectively settling the Scottish civil war and leaving him unchallenged. By 1328 had forced a peace treaty on England which recognised Scottish independence. He died in 1329.
4. Robert Burns – poet
THE son of a poor farmer, born in Alloway, near Ayr, in 1759, Burns was nevertheless given a literary education and went on to produce a prolific amount of poetry, chiefly in the Scots dialect.
Burns is commonly regarded as Scotland’s national poet, also has an international reputation for the lyrical quality of his work and upholding the common man’s cause. Poems such ‘Address to a Haggis’ and songs such as ‘Auld Lang Syne‘ embody Scots culture for millions worldwide. Though detractors accuse him of a parochial outlook compared with other national literary figures such as Shakespeare, his work continues to be a major influence today.
5. Donald Dewar – politician
ONE of the key architects of Scotland’s first parliament for nearly 300 years and its first First Minister. Intellectually brilliant, passionately committed to the Labour movement, respected both inside and outside his party and by the public. Born in Glasgow in 1937, he qualified as a solicitor at Glasgow University. Entered Westminster representing Aberdeen South in 1966, later returned as MP for Glasgow Garscadden in 1978. Became Secretary of State for Scotland in 1997 and oversaw the transition to devolution. Became First Minister of the Scottish parliament in 1999. Died in 2000.
6. James Watt - engineer
BORN in Greenock in 1736, Watt trained as a mathematical instrument maker. While repairing a model steam engine, Watt hit on the idea of cooling used steam in a condenser separate from the main cylinder, greatly increasing efficiency. He manufactured a new pumping engine and followed it with several other major innovations which helped to make Britain the most powerful nation in the world. He died in 1819.
He made the steam engine an efficient and versatile tool, transforming the world in the 18th and 19th centuries with the advent of industrial engines, steam railways and steam ships.
7. David Livingstone - missionary and explorer
ARGUABLY Britain’s greatest 19th century explorer, Livingstone combined iron will with luminous Christian virtues and lifelong opposition to the slave trade.
Born in Blantyre in 1813, he worked in a cotton factory from age 10, studied medicine and was ordained as a missionary in 1840. Began work in what is now Botswana, before travelling north to open new trade routes to east and west.
He discovered Victoria Falls, explored the Zambezi, attempted but failed to find the sources of the Nile, and died in what is now Zambia in 1873.
8. Adam Smith - philosopher and economist
BORN in Kirkaldy in 1723, he studied at Glasgow and Oxford, became part of circle in Edinburgh including David Hume.
He became Professor of Logic at Glasgow in 1751, later moving to be chair of moral philosophy.
Published Theory of Moral Sentiments in 1759, published Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations in 1776.
He is considered the ‘godfather’ of the free market who helped to define modern economic thinking, although critics argue that he learned much of his philosophical doctrine from Hume.
9. Charles Rennie Mackintosh - architect, designer, artist
PROBABLY Scotland’s most innovative artist, he exerted a major influence on European design and was the outstanding exponent of Art Noveau in Scotland.
Rennie Mackintosh was born in Glasgow in 1868 and attended Allan Glen’s school, architectural apprenticeship.
Buildings include the Glasgow School of Art, the Cranston tearooms and houses such as Hill House in Helensburgh. Designs included detailed interior designs, textiles, furniture and metalwork. Exhibited at the Vienna Secession Exhibition 1900.
10. (James) Keir Hardie - trades unionist,
politician
THE father of the Labour Party, he rose from poverty to be a lifelong campaigner for social justice and the unemployed. Born near Holytown, Lanarkshire, in 1856, he worked in coalmine from age 10, later became a miners’ champion.
He founded the Independent Labour Party, and was the first ever Labour parliamentary candidate, elected to West Ham South 1892. He lost his seat 1915 after opposing Britain’s involvement in the First World War, and died in the same year.
11. Sir Walter Scott - novelist and poet
ARGUABLY the greatest Scottish
novelist, he helped define much
of the romantic image of Scotland’s past. Born in Edinburgh in 1771, and
educated at Edinburgh University, he wrote ballads and became the most popular
author of his day by 1805, most famous for the historical Waverley novels,
including Ivanhoe. Declared bankrupt in 1826, wrote his way back towards
financial health, and died 1832.
12. David Hume - philosopher and historian
BORN in Edinburgh in 1711, he studied law and commerce.
Published A Treatise of Human Nature, then Essays, Moral and Political, in
1741-2, which made his views more widely known.
Possibly the brightest mind produced by Scotland, champion of experimental reasoning, a major influence on the empiricist philosophers of the 20th century.
Following the publication of the above article two letters on the subject
were printed in the Scotland on Sunday on the 5th January 2003.
Vying for the title of famous Scot
WHO selected the 12 famous Scots (‘Fleming: man who broke the mould’, December 29) and why do they not include James Clerk Maxwell? Perhaps he is not famous enough. Of the 12, only Fleming was a scientist, and he made only one minor discovery, which he failed to develop.
Unlike Watt, an engineer who merely improved someone else’s invention, Clerk Maxwell, a professor of physics, made many fundamental discoveries in several different fields (gases, optics, colour), most importantly in electricity and magnetism. He showed the connection between these latter two that gave us the modern theory of electromagnetism and led to the development of radio. He deserves to be ‘the greatest Scot’.
Steuart Campbell, Edinburgh
FURTHER to the article concerning the results of a poll conducted to find the ‘Greatest Ever Scot’, I thought that your readers might be interested to be aware that, excluding William Wallace and Robert the Bruce, who lived at a time before Freemasons’ Lodges had been established throughout Scotland, some 50% of the other 10 individuals listed are known to have been members of our Order.
It is heartening to learn that Sir Alexander Fleming, Robert Burns, James Watt, Adam Smith and Sir Walter Scott are all so highly regarded by the present-day population of our country, and certainly we, the Freemasons of Scotland, take great pride in these famous individuals having been actively associated with the work of our Order.
C. Martin McGibbon, Grand Secretary, The Grand Lodge of Antient, Free and Accepted Masons of Scotland, Edinburgh.