THE statue of one of Musselburgh's most famous sons will shine bright for his 170th anniversary thanks to a community initiative.

The Old Musselburgh Club, supported by the Musselburgh Area Partnership and East Lothian Council, has reinstated the floodlighting and tidied up the statue of celebrated physician and writer David Macbeth Moir at the Mall.

The project involved cutting back trees, repairing the floodlights as well as cleaning and repointing the main structure, and painting the railings.

Club members paid tribute to Mike Foy and Glen Kane, of East Lothian Council, for their efforts with the pruning and electrical work involved at the monument which was erected in 1853.

Stuart Baxter, area partnership manager, and Iain Clark, area partnership chairman, supported by other area partnership members, also arranged for the base of the statue to be power washed, the main structure repointed and the surrounding railings painted at a cost of more than £1,700. The area partnership allocates a budget from East Lothian Council to local projects.

The Old Musselburgh Club marks the anniversary of the birth of Dr Macbeth Moir on the first Sunday in January each year with a church service and wreath-laying ceremony at the Mall.

The 2021 service will be held on Sunday, January 3, subject to restrictions as might apply in relation to Covid-19.

Born in the town in 1798, Dr Macbeth Moir worked tirelessly as a doctor throughout his life and was Musselburgh’s medical officer in 1832 during the cholera epidemics which badly affected the local community.

Club members are joined by descendants of his family Ian and Marion Moir from Edinburgh in remembrance of the man who was also a writer, adopting the Greek letter Delta as his pen name.

Each year, a service in his memory takes place at a local church.

Macbeth Moir had a family of 11, three of whom died under the age of four. A member of the Kirk Session at St Michael’s Church, he was also a councillor. He was badly injured in accidents in 1846 and again in 1851, and his general health suffered. He died on July 6, 1851, in Dumfries.

He was a contributor of prose and verse to magazines, particularly to Blackwood’s Magazine under his Delta pen name.

There are several street names in the town which make reference to him, as well as the JD Wetherspoon pub The David Macbeth Moir.