SCOTLAND has produced some of the world’s most renowned people ... but The National’s readers have chosen Alexander Fleming as the most iconic Scot of the 20th century.
You voted in your thousands and, after a tough final against The Proclaimers, Fleming was the clear winner by 475 votes.
Born in Ayrshire in 1881, Fleming was a Scottish bacteriologist and Nobel Prize winner, best known for his discovery of penicillin.
Our most iconic Scot competition came about after BBC Two show Icons: The Greatest Person of the 20th Century selected Alan Turing as its most iconic this week.
With no Scots or women in their final shortlist, that got us thinking who the most iconic Scot of the 20th century is. We came up with a fantastic group of Scots but the competition could only have one winner.
The other 14 Scots in the running were: Kier Hardie, Annie Lennox, Andrew Carnegie, Mary Barbour, Dolly the sheep, Billy Connolly, Hugh MacDiarmid, Harry Lauder, Winnie Ewing, Lulu, Sean Connery, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Elsie Inglis and Muriel Spark.
It was hard to narrow down the selection – and there are some excellent candidates who didn’t even made our shortlist.
But we think Fleming, the man who did not realize the full significance of his discovery at the time, is a worthy winner.
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Callum Baird, Editor of The National
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