Wallace Monument Thomas Carlyle, Hugh Miller, Thomas Chalmers, David Livingstone, and W. E. Gladstone. In 2017 it was announced that Mary Slessor and Maggie Keswick Jencks will be the first heroines to be celebrated in the hall. The original Victorian statue of Wallace stands on the corner of the monument and is by the Edinburgh sculptor David Watson Stevenson. In 1996 Tom Church carved a statue of Wallace called "Freedom", which was inspired by the film "Braveheart". It has the face of Mel Gibson, the actor who played William Wallace in the film. Church leased the statue to Stirling Council, who in
James Stirling (1800–1876) James Stirling (1800–1876) James Stirling (3 March 1799, Methven – 10 January 1876, Edinburgh) was a Scottish engineer, and brother of Robert Stirling. He originally specialised railway engines and later in dock gates and weirs He was born at Cloag Farm near Methven in Perthshire, the son of Patrick and Janet Stirling. He originally studied divinity, intending to be a minister in the Church of Scotland. However, inspired by his brother Robert, he instead decided to be an engineer, and was apprenticed to Claude Girdwood & Co in Glasgow as a mechanical engineer. The company specialised in making cotton gins.