Last weekend, The Herald and Herald on Sunday published a list of 50 Scots who helped shape the world. Over two days, we counted down the people who have really left their mark on their country, and the world.
However, we knew it would be an impossible task to cover everyone and so asked you, our readers, to send in suggestions of people we might have missed.
Here are three ideas we received this week ... do you agree?
William Murdoch
I would respectfully wish to draw attention to, in my humble opinion, one major omission – William Murdoch.
He was born on August 21, 1754, in Lugar, near Cumnock in Ayrshire. He was the third of seven children and the first son to survive beyond infancy. His father was a millwright and young William soon learned to help out with the family business.
However, his yearning for education lay well outside the rural community in which he grew up. In August 1777, at the age of 23, he walked, yes walked, to Birmingham to seek employment with the then fledgling company set up by James Watt and Matthew Boulton, steam engineers.
Much has been documented concerning the massive impact created by James Watt in the production of steam propulsion but little is known of Murdoch’s contribution. Initially being a little envious of the talent displayed by Murdoch, it was only later in the design stage that Watt credited him with his important input.
However, William Murdoch will be best remembered for his own invention: coal gas lighting. Starting with producing enough gas to light his own home, then the factory where he worked, his invention blossomed throughout towns and cities all over this country and beyond. Much more could be written about this remarkable Scot and his contribution to the economic and progressive development of this country but I will leave it there.
Jim Stables
Bishopton
Susan Wighton
One person I would like to suggest including is a nurse called Susan Wighton. She worked in refugee camps in Lebanon in the early eighties in unspeakable conditions. She was in her early twenties, and when she returned she was voted Evening Times Scotswoman of the Year.
I hadn’t heard anything of her since then, until I read the biography of Marie Colvin, where Susan’s work in the refugee camps in the 1980s was mentioned. She has obviously continued her nursing career, under the radar, not finding it necessary to post on Twitter, Facebook, etc – just quietly doing good.
I have never forgotten her.
Margaret Forbes
Kilmacolm
Jane Haining
May I suggest that Jane Haining from Dunscore should be among the 50. She worked as a Church of Scotland missionary in its mission school in Budapest in the 1930s and 1940s and was responsible for saving the lives of many Jews during the Holocaust.
She refused to abandon her work and was eventually arrested and sent to Auschwitz, where she died in 1944.
In 1997, she was named Righteous Among The Nations by Yad Vashem in Israel.
Her response to difficult and dreadful times reminds us that “there is always something we can do”.
Christopher Thornhill
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel