New Memorial for Engineer Minister

A new headstone has been erected over the grave of a Church of Scotland minister and groundbreaking engineer of the 19th century.

The headstone to the Rev Robert Stirling in Galston Cemetery, East Ayrshire, where he ministered for over half a century, was erected after a public appeal. The new gravestone replicates the wording of the old one, which had been in a dilapidated state and barely readable. It also includes a line drawing of the engine now commonly named after him, which he patented in 1816.

The Stirling Engine generates energy through the heating and cooling of air or other gas in a closed system. Although never a rival to the steam engine, as its inventor had envisaged, it found use in low-to-medium power applications such as water pumps and low-power generators - and providing air for church organs.

These days, experiments into its use in connection with alternative and renewable energy sources are ongoing. 

Stirling (right) was the minister of Laigh Kirk, Kilmarnock from 1816-1824, and then at Galston Parish Church until his death, aged 87, in 1878. As a minister, Irene Hopkins in An Historical Synopsis writes: “He was greatly respected and greatly loved for his kindliness, generosity and strong Christianity. He took his share in the struggles that led to the Disruption and was suspended by the General Assembly. In 1849 when cholera inflicted the town there was no-one more conscientious in his ministrations. He moved among them, he tended them, he prayed with them and he buried them while the world at large passed by.”

Born into a farming family near Methven in Perthshire in 1790, he studied at Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities, married Jane Rankine and had five sons and two daughters.

Last year, he was inducted into the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame.

After the poor condition of the old memorial had been brought to its attention in 2012, the Kirk Session of Galston Parish Church set up a small committee which launched the Stirling Memorial Fund. £3500 was raised from public and corporate donations.

A service of rededication is planned for Sunday May 3 at 11am in Galston Parish Church, followed at 12.45pm at the site of the gravestone in Galston Cemetery. Both will be conducted by the Rev Alastair Symington, Chaplain-in-Ordinary to HM the Queen in Scotland and who has been serving as Locum Minister at Galston which has been vacant for more than two years. There will also, on that day, be an exhibition of the work of Robert Stirling in the Hogg Hall, Galston.

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