Seasiders aiming to treasure a statue to author Robert Louis Stevenson

Published on Saturday 13 March 2010 11:11

HIS childhood holidays in the seaside town are said to have inspired the classic novel, Treasure Island.

• Robert Louis Stevenson aged ten on a donkey in North Berwick

Now campaigners hope to commemorate Robert Louis Stevenson's links with North Berwick by erecting a statue in his memory.

They have written to East Lothian Council outlining plans for a sculpture of the famous author as a ten-year-old boy with his faithful Skye terrier. It could be situated along the coast or in the Lodge Grounds, a popular public park.

Kit Lovie, who lives in the town and is a committee member of Edinburgh's One o'Clock Gun and Time Ball Association, came up with the idea. It is also supported by North Berwick Community Council, which feels it would be a good tourist attraction.

Poll: Should North Berwick have a statue of a young Robert Louis Stevenson?

Mrs Lovie said she was inspired after researching the town's links with Stevenson, who died in 1894. She said: "There has been a lot written about his childhood holidays to North Berwick, so we wanted to celebrate this in the town. We'd love to see it in the Lodge Grounds – it was done up a couple of years ago and it certainly gets a lot of visitors."

A group has already organised a Robert Louis Stevenson festival in the town and there are plans for a plaque on the seaside house where he stayed. His father and grandfather were involved in building lighthouses along the shore and the family were frequent visitors to the town.

The island of Fidra, in the Forth, is said to have been the inspiration for Treasure Island.

George Robinson, secretary of the association, said: "We've had a really enthusiastic response to the idea and hopefully we should be able to get the funding for it.

"We haven't got the design for it yet, but it would be of Stevenson as a child. There are some great pictures of him on a seaside donkey, or with his Skye terrier, Coolin."

The group hopes to apply for funding to organisations such as the National Lottery and the Northern Lighthouse Board's charity to realise the project.

Community council chairwoman Pat Burton said they would be discussing the plans in more detail at a meeting on Tuesday.

She said: "We would like to see some sort of commemoration for him. His family used to take a house along the sea front in the summer. The Robert Louis Stevenson festival was very popular, but it would be lovely to have something permanent."

Treasurer Elma Banks added: "It would be very nice to have a statue of him and the dog. We'd like to have it near where he actually stayed or looking out towards Fidra."

East Lothian provost Sheena Richardson said she would be keen to hear more details of the plan. "It's a very nice idea," she said.

CAPITAL AUTHOR INSPIRED BY LOTHIAN COASTLINE

ROBERT Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh on 13 November 1850, the only son of a prosperous civil engineer, Thomas Stevenson, who was joint-engineer to the Board of Northern Lighthouses.

The family spent most summers in North Berwick, and Stevenson's writing is peppered with references to the coastline.

He was originally expected to follow the family business, enrolling on an engineering degree course at Edinburgh University in 1867. But he later switched to law and was called to the Scottish bar in 1875.

Writing was his true vocation, however, and his novels, including Kidnapped, Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Hyde, are still widely read today.

As a child, he suffered persistent bouts of tuberculosis, often rendering him bedridden.

In 1880, he married Fanny Osbourne, whom he met in France, and they moved to California. Later that decade, they emigrated to Western Samoa, where Stevenson died in 1894.