Honouring Sir Alexander Fleming
Darvel Improvement Group’s Memorial Project
Linda Brown
The East Ayrshire town of Darvel takes immense pride in being the birthplace of Sir Alexander Fleming (1881-1955), the renowned physician and scientist, who discovered penicillin in 1928. This groundbreaking antibiotic revolutionised medicine by effectively treating bacterial infections, saving countless millions of lives worldwide.
Fleming’s contributions to medicine are commemorated globally. In London, a reconstruction of his laboratory, The Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum at St Mary’s Hospital, stands as a testament to his pioneering work. He is honoured with busts in Barcelona and Rome, a statue outside Madrid’s bullring and a stained-glass window in St. James’ Church, London. His face has graced a five-pound banknote, and a school in Telford and a college in Trujillo, Peru both proudly bear his name. There’s even a sell-out Off-Broadway musical Lifeline inspired by his life and achievements!
In Darvel, a memorial, dating from 1957 and located at Hastings Square, features a bust of Fleming, a circular flower bed inspired by Fleming’s petri dish and a curved memorial wall. After more than sixty years, unsurprisingly, it is looking worse for wear.
“The surrounding walls are cracked and falling down,” explains Maureen Ross, Chair of Darvel Improvement Group (DIG). “And Fleming’s bust and plinth both need restoration work.”
“We need to do more about recognising Fleming. His hometown memorial is in a poor state,” adds DIG Secretary, Joyce Morton.
These concerns motivated DIG to kickstart a project to upgrade Fleming’s memorial. The first hurdle they faced was establishing ownership of the patch of land on which the memorial is built. No easy task, this has taken months of investigation and enquiries stretched as far as Australia.
Meanwhile the group considered fresh designs for a replacement memorial – they plan to keep the concept of the curved wall, clean and renovate the plinth and bust, and include a special feature representing the famous petri dish showing the ‘Fleming mould.’
Naturally all of this work won’t come cheap. The costings are high. Therefore DIG are in the process of submitting applications to major funding organisations. They will reach out to big pharmaceutical companies, who have benefited financially from penicillin sales over the decades, requesting donations. A Crowdfunding campaign is also in DIG’s pipeline with the hope of generating contributions not only locally, but from grateful donors worldwide who respect Fleming’s legacy.
Recently, the hiccup around land-ownership has been resolved and DIG are currently involved in negotiations with the owners. The group realises this ambitious project will take time, but their goal is to have a striking and fitting memorial, worthy of Fleming’s achievement, installed in good time to celebrate penicillin’s 100th anniversary in 2028.
In 1944, in recognition of his contribution to medical science, Alexander Fleming was knighted. The following year he received the prestigious Nobel Prize in Medicine. When Fleming died in 1955 he was awarded the privilege of having his remains interred in the crypt of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.
Fleming appears to have been a humble man – he is quoted as saying- “Nature makes penicillin. I just found it.” Over the past eighty years, his serendipitous find has saved hundreds of millions of lives – from injured soldiers during WW2, to Spanish bullfighters, to ordinary folk of all ages, creeds and ethnicities suffering from illnesses such as septicaemia, meningitis and rheumatic fever.
Let’s wish Darvel Improvement Group’s Sir Alexander Fleming Memorial project well. Darvel’s most famous son deserves a new improved memorial. Without Fleming’s discovery, many of us would not be here today.
Check out Darvel Improvement Group’s Facebook page for updates.
