Mary Slessor Memorial

If you are from Scotland you are probably familiar with Mary Slessor - even if you don't know it yet, so read on - she's the woman on the Clydesdale Bank £10 note - and she was born in Gilcomston in 1848. From 1876 to 1915 she worked as a missionary in Nigeria where she helped to improve the status of women and gained a reputation as a humanitarian. This Kemnay granite sculpture by Morayshire artist Mary Bourne stands in Aberdeen's Union Terrace Gardens and serves as her memorial in the city of her birth.

The green oasis of Union Terrace Gardens is under threat from property development that would see the entire valley - beloved of generations of Aberdonians - submerged under a bland concrete sea. What would become of Mary Slessor's Memorial then ?