Although he was born in Irvine, his family moved to Greenock
when he was young, and he died here after a life spent in many other parts of
Britain and abroad. There are several
plaques commemorating him in the town.
This plaque is on the wall of a building on the corner of
Westburn Street and West Blackhall Street and marks the place where the house
in which he died once stood.
The grave is beautifully kept.
Galt is also commemorated by a fountain on the Esplanade at
the bottom of Roseneath Street . This
was the idea of Allan Park Paton, former librarian of Greenock.
This is what should be in that space!
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John Galt was a remarkable man. I'll be writing much more about him in later
posts.
The Greenockian
Galt was a wonderful writer. (I discovered his work through the books of crime historian William Roughead.) Sorry to hear he's, uh, lost his head. An overzealous fan at work, perhaps?
ReplyDeleteUndine - unfortunately more likely to be vandals! William Roughead sounds interesting - must check him out.
ReplyDeleteI wonder... is this the same Galt who was in Upper Canada (and has a town named for him?) I've never read any of works, but he does have a poetic look about his face. I'll be interesting to read more what you have about him.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is the same John Galt. I visited Guelph in Canada recently and hope to write a post about the connection. Thanks for visiting.
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