Mural renews town's love of 'hero' Alexander Fleming

The mural of Sir Alexander Fleming by artist Rogue One has pride of place in the town's centre

Darvel in East Ayrshire is one of those towns that can feel a little left behind by the collapse of industry.

Formerly the heart of lace manufacturing in the Irvine Valley, its last factory shut in 2009.

But there's an increasingly resurgent and vibrant community spirit brought about by the resurrection of the story of perhaps its greatest son.

Between the traditional cottages and smattering of shops on the main street, a giant, technicolour mural of Sir Alexander Fleming, the man who discovered penicillin, now looks out over the town.

Unveiled last month, the mural was commissioned by a regeneration charity over a sense that Fleming had been under-recognised in his home for too long.

It feels personal to Tom McSkimming, a retired builder who met Fleming while still a toddler.

"He used to come up to our house in the mid-1940s," Mr McSkimming recalled.

"He'd phone up my mum from London when coming up to his holiday house just up the road and my mum would put on his fire for him.

"He once clapped me on the head and said 'this wee boy doesn't know how lucky he is compared to the wee boys in London'."

Fleming was a regular visitor to Tom McSkimming's house when he was a toddler

The microbiologist famously remarked "that's funny" upon noticing an errant mould was killing staphylococci bacteria in a culture plate in 1928.

The observation eventually led to development of the world's first true antibiotic and has saved countless lives.

The World Health Organisation said it was "near-impossible to pinpoint" how many lives have been saved as a result of the discovery.

It is used to treat illnesses ranging from septicaemia to pneumonia to meningitis.

Penicillin, and the wider family of beta-lactam antibiotics, continue to be the most widely-used antibiotics in the world.

Sir Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in the 1940s, saving "countless" lives, according to the World Health Organisation

The mural, designed by Glasgow-based artist Rogue One, is not the first tribute to Fleming in Darvel.

He was born at Lochfield Farm in August 1881, about four miles (6.4km), from the town's centre where the mural is found on a gable end.

Fleming is namechecked on the town's welcome sign; a bust from 1960 sits in a bare memorial garden, and there is some memorabilia from his life on display at the town hall.

On the outskirts of the town, Phil Scott knows exactly how devoted Fleming's fan base can be.

Phil Scott owns the modern Lochfield Farm, where Fleming was born

He now owns Lochfield and meets the occasional visitor who makes the pilgrimage to his birthplace.

Mr Scott, 78, from Essex, looks after a memorial stone from the 1950s at the farm and a makeshift collection of memorabilia in his attic.

"It's a cliché but Fleming gets under your skin," he said.

"The amount of people that come from Scotland and come from abroad and stories they come out with of how penicillin in different ways has saved their lives, it never ceases to astound you.

"One young teacher came from Spain and Fleming was her idol. The name of the school where she taught was Alexander Fleming School, the name of the square where she lived was Fleming Square, they had a bust like we do in Darvel and then she turned around and she said 'we have a public holiday to him, what do you have?"

Frank Donnelly received the Sir Alexander Fleming medal from the microbiologist while a pupil at Darvel School in 1952

Frank Donnelly, 88, recalled receiving a Sir Alexander Fleming medal from its namesake as a third year secondary pupil at Darvel School in 1952.

"He had been a boyhood hero of mine and my twin brother's," Mr Donnelly said.

"His story reads like a film script. He was born a very humble man. He was seventh of a family of eight which meant that the farm was never going to come his way but he became world famous."

Despite his achievements including the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (alongside Howard Florey and Ernst Chain) and a litany of foreign accolades like the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour of the French Republic, Mr Donnelly said the bacteriologist seemed "very unassuming."

"We were so inspired with Fleming that we sent him a Christmas card, my brother and I, and this shows how humble a man he was. He actually took the time, and it was a busy life he was living, to reply to us," he said.

'Fleming festival'

Colin Allan from the Darvel Area Regeneration Team (DART) said the artwork was a way of showing Darvel was a town reclaiming a lost identity.

"Darvel was run down for many years," he said.

"The mural is just adding to sense of being on the way back up.

"We're also planning a festival to celebrate the centenary of the discovery of Penicillin in 2028."

Another local charity also has ambitions to renovate the existing Fleming Memorial Garden in Darvel's Hastings Square.

"That's a lot of money so apart from grants we'll need to go out to crowd-funding but because of the international dimension of Fleming," Mr Allan said.

"Fingers crossed we'll get it."