The Scots as a nation have the reputation of being fiercely independent and a thorn in England's flesh! Nobody wants hostile neighbours but Scotland's history shows a continual struggle to maintain independence. The Romans tried to occupy the country for a few years, found it too difficult and gave up. England spent centuries trying to take possession and eventually they had to accept a Scottish king on their throne. Intrepid younger sons, black sheep of families and political exiles left Scotland to make their mark on the world.
John Logie Baird - television
Alexander Bell - telephone
Alexander Fleming - penicillin
James Watt - the steam engine
James Clerk Maxwell, - Scottish physicist, claimed the existence of radio waves before Marconi
Lord Reith of Stonehaven - the early development of the BBC
John Paul Jones - founder the American Navy
David Hume - 18th-century philosopher and historian, influenced thought
Patrick Gordon - General to Tsar Peter the Great
James Keith - Field-Marshal to Frederick the Great
Robert and James Adam - architects
Thomas Telford - bridges, roads and canals
Robert Stevenson's - lighthouses
Andrew Carnegie – philanthropist
British Prime Ministers – Gladstone, Ramsay MacDonald, Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home
American Presidents of Scottish descent - 11
John Macarthur – Australia’s agricultural system
And these are just a few….