Scottish Parliament honours David Livingstone

Apr 1 2010

THE Scottish Parliament have honoured Blantyre’s most famous son.

Committee room six at the Holyrood complex is to be named after David Livingstone.

The Scottish Parliament authorities agreed to the move after accepting a suggestion that each of the Parliament’s six committees rooms should be named in commemoration of a historical figure who made a significant contribution to Scotland.

The other five rooms will be named after Robert Burns, women’s education pioneer Mary Fairfax Somerville, discoverer of penicillin Alexander Fleming, physicist James Clerk Maxwell and economist and philosopher Adam Smith.

Forty-five MSPs put forward 170 nominations for the committee rooms’ names.

And the legendary Scottish missionary, who grew up in Blantyre, was the choice of Hamilton MSP Tom McCabe and Central Scotland member Christina McKelvie.

Mr McCabe, who sits on the Parliament’s corporate body who chose the six names, said: “It was important that someone from Lanarkshire who went on to become a figure of worldwide renown should be honoured in this way.

“It also underlines the Parliament’s strong links with Malawi.”

Mrs McKelvie added: “As soon as I heard about the idea to name the committee rooms after great Scots, I immediately suggested David Livingstone. His contribution to the world encapsulates so much for Scotland to be proud of.

“As an explorer, Livingstone enhanced human knowledge by charting parts of Africa previously unknown to the rest of the world.

“For me, though, his opposition to slavery and his belief that no one race has the right to rule over another is even more important than his geographical discoveries.

“His humanitarian legacy is why he continues to be honoured across southern and central Africa today and why he should be celebrated by his fellow Scots.”

Livingstone, who was born in 1813 and died in 1873, was an explorer and medical missionary.

He was the first white man to travel the length of Lake Tanganyika.

He discovered Victoria Falls and was sent by the Royal Geographical Society to discover the source of the Nile.

His name is still revered in Malawi and other parts of Africa where he travelled during his missionary work.

The Livingstone Centre, Blantyre, which has artefacts of his life in the tenement in which he was raised, opens for the new season today (Thursday).