1 Pound Sterling 1994. Centennial of Robert Louis Stevenson death, Kingdom of Great Britain
| in Banknotes Book | Number: SC835 |
| Years of issue: | 03.12.1994 |
| Edition: | 2 000 000 |
| Signatures: | Chief Executive: Sir George Mathewson (in office 1992 - February 2000) |
| Serie: | Scotland |
| Specimen of: | 03.12.1994 |
| Material: | Cotton fiber |
| Size (mm): | 129 x 65 |
| Printer: | TDLR (Thomas de la Rue & Company), London |
* All pictures marked 
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Description
Watermark:
Sir Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll, 1st Earl of Ilay.
Avers:
Centered, on background, is Dundas House, designed by Sir William Chambers, built in 1774 for Sir Lawrence Dundas, and acquired by the bank, as headquarters, in 1821.
In front of Dundas House is a statue.
Description of that statue please read from the image!
General John Hope, 4th Earl of Hopetoun PC KB FRSE (17 August 1765 – 27 August 1823), known as the Honourable John Hope from 1781 to 1814 and as the Lord Niddry from 1814 to 1816, was a Scottish politician and British Army officer.
Hopetoun was the only son of John Hope, 2nd Earl of Hopetoun, by his second wife Jane or Jean Oliphant. His mother died when he was only one year old. He was commissioned into the 10th Light Dragoons in 1784. He sat as Member of Parliament for Linlithgowshire from 1790 to 1800.
He took part in the capture of the French West Indies and Spanish West Indies in 1796 and 1797. In 1799 he was sent to Den Helder as Deputy Adjutant-General and was present at the Battle of Bergen and the Battle of Castricum. In 1801 he was sent to Cairo and then to Alexandria to take the surrender of the French garrisons there. He became Lieutenant-Governor of Portsmouth and General Officer Commanding South-West District in June 1805.
He commanded a Division during the advance into Spain and commanded the British left at the Battle of Corunna in 1809, succeeding to overall command when Sir John Moore was killed. Later that year he commanded the reserve army during the Walcheren Campaign. He was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Ireland and was admitted to the Irish Privy Council in 1812. He then commanded the First Division under The Duke of Wellington at the Battle of Nivelle and at the Battle of the Nive in 1813. He was captured fighting the French sortie at the Battle of Bayonne in 1814.
He served as Lord-Lieutenant of Linlithgowshire from 1816 to 1823. On 17 May 1814, two years before he succeeded in the earldom, he was raised to the peerage in his own right as Baron Niddry, of Niddry Castle in the County of Linlithgow, with remainder to the male issue of his father. In 1816 he succeeded his elder half-brother as fourth Earl of Hopetoun.
He died in Paris, France on 27 August 1823.
In 1798 Lord Hopetoun married firstly Elizabeth Hope Vere (or Weir) of Craigiehall, daughter of Charles Hope-Weir. After her death he married secondly Louisa Dorothea Wedderburn, daughter of John Wedderburn of Ballendean, and granddaughter of Sir John Wedderburn, 5th Baronet of Blackness.
On his death he was succeeded in his titles by his eldest son from his second marriage, John. Lady Hopetoun died in 1836. 
Portrait of Sir Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll, 1st Earl of Ilay.
Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll, 1st Earl of Ilay (June 1682 - 15 April 1761) was a Scottish nobleman, politician, lawyer, businessman and soldier. He was known as Lord Archibald Campbell from 1703 to 1706, and as the Earl of Ilay from 1706 until 1743, when he succeeded to the dukedom. He was the dominant political leader in Scotland in his day, and was involved in many civic projects.
The engraving on banknote is based on the work by dutch engraver John Faber Jr. after the portrait of Sir Archibald Campbell by Allan Ramsay.
On the top is the emblem of RBS.
The RBS Group uses branding developed for the Bank on its merger with the National Commercial Bank of Scotland in 1969. The Group's logo takes the form of an abstract symbol of four inward-pointing arrows known as the "Daisy Wheel" and is based on an arrangement of 36 piles of coins in a 6 by 6 square,representing "the accumulation and concentration of wealth by the Group".
On left side are Emblem of a manuscript, quill pen and inkwell, the author's signature and the dates of the author's birth and death - 1850-1894.
Denominations in numerals are in lower left and top right corners. In words centered.
Revers:
On background is the Manuscript from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a gothic novella by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, first published in 1886. The work is also known as The Strange Case of Jekyll Hyde, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, or simply Jekyll & Hyde. It is about a London legal practitioner named Gabriel John Utterson who investigates strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr Henry Jekyll, and the evil Edward Hyde. The novella's impact is such that it has become a part of the language, with the phrase "Jekyll and Hyde" entering the vernacular to refer to people with an unpredictably dual nature: outwardly good, but sometimes shockingly evil.
In lower left corner is outline of Edinburgh and the Edinburgh castle on the rock.
Edinburgh Castle is a historic fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland from its position on the Castle Rock. Archaeologists have established human occupation of the rock since at least the Iron Age (II century AD), although the nature of the early settlement is unclear. There has been a royal castle on the rock since at least the reign of David I in the XII century, and the site continued to be a royal residence until the Union of the Crowns in 1603. From the XV century the castle's residential role declined, and by the XVII century it was principally used as military barracks with a large garrison. Its importance as a part of Scotland's national heritage was recognized increasingly from the early XIX century onwards, and various restoration programs have been carried out over the past century and a half. As one of the most important strongholds in the Kingdom of Scotland, Edinburgh Castle was involved in many historical conflicts from the Wars of Scottish Independence in the XIV century to the Jacobite Rising of 1745. It has been besieged, both successfully and unsuccessfully, on several occasions.
Few of the present buildings pre-date the Lang Siege of the XVI century, when the medieval defenses were largely destroyed by artillery bombardment. The most notable exceptions are St Margaret's Chapel from the early XII century, which is regarded as the oldest building in Edinburgh, the Royal Palace and the early-XVI-century Great Hall, although the interiors have been much altered from the mid-Victorian period onwards. The castle also houses the Scottish regalia, known as the Honours of Scotland and is the site of the Scottish National War Memorial and the National War Museum of Scotland. The British Army is still responsible for some parts of the castle, although its presence is now largely ceremonial and administrative. Some of the castle buildings house regimental museums which contribute to its presentation as a tourist attraction.
Robert Loius Stevenson, 1893. The photo made by Henry Walter Barnett. Also - the new logo of the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet and travel writer, most noted for Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and A Child's Garden of Verses.
Born and educated in Edinburgh, Stevenson suffered from serious bronchial trouble for much of his life, but continued to write prolifically and travel widely in defiance of his poor health. As a young man, he mixed in London literary circles, receiving encouragement from Andrew Lang, Edmund Gosse, Leslie Stephen and W. E. Henley, the last of whom may have provided the model for Long John Silver in Treasure Island. In 1890, he settled in Samoa, where he died in 1894.
A celebrity in his lifetime, Stevenson's critical reputation has fluctuated since his death, though today his works are held in general acclaim. He is currently ranked as the 26th most translated author in the world.
In lower right corner is Roberts Louis Stevenson House Museum in Vailima, Samoa.
Born in Edinburgh, Robert Louis Stevenson was stricken at a young age with chronic respiratory illness that, along with his vagabonding inclination, led him in his adult life to begin a series of travels in search of a warmer, more hospitable climate. After trying the French Riviera, the south coast of England, the Napa Valley, and the Adirondacks, the writer finally found his place on the other side of the world, in Samoa.
Stevenson - by this point in his life a bona fide literary celebrity - and his family set sail from San Francisco in 1888 aboard the chartered yacht Casco and toured the Pacific for three years, spending time in Hawaii, Tahiti, the Gilbert Islands, New Zealand, Sydney, and Samoa.
It was in the latter that Stevenson finally settled, purchasing a 127-hectare (314-acre) piece of land in 1890 and setting to work to make it a home.
The first settlement consisted of a small shack on 3.2 cleared hectares. This simple life would last for only a year, however. The first part of what would be their grand mansion was completed in 1891, called Villa Vailima, after the nearby village of Vailima.
The house would eventually include five bedrooms, a library, a ballroom, and the only fireplace in Samoa, with decorations including a piano, a tablecloth from Queen Victoria, and a Rodin nude given as a gift by the artist himself.
Despite this rather grand home, Stevenson had close relations with the local population, being an active advocate for indigenous Samoan political interests (including the publication of a sharp criticism of colonial rule that led to the recall of two European officials) and earning the familiar nickname “Tusitala” from the locals, meaning “Teller of Tales.”
Stevenson, author of Treasure Island and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, died in 1894 at the tragically young age of 44 and, per his wishes, was buried atop the nearby Mount Vaea. His wife, Fanny, lived another 20 years; after her death in 1914, her ashes were brought from California and interred beside her husband’s remains.
In the years after their deaths, their home served as the residence of the Governor of German Samoa, the administrator of the New Zealand Mandatory Authority, and finally as the Samoan Head of State after independence was achieved. Severely damaged by hurricanes in 1990 and 1991, the mansion was fully renovated and reopened as the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum in December of 1994, one hundred years after the writer’s death.
Today, Stevenson’s family home is the most popular tourist attraction on the island of Samoa, although it may only see a few outside visitors each day. The staff run a guided tour of the home, which is kept as it looked at the time of Stevenson’s death. On fine days, visitors can also take a hike to the top of the hill and pay their respects at the author’s burial site. (www.atlasobscura.com)
On the right side are the wind rose and the heroes of Stevenson's novels. So far, I have not been able to find out exactly - which heroes are depicted.
Denominations in numerals are in top corners.
Comments:
Commemorative banknote, dedicated to Centennial of Robert Louis Stevenson death.
Commemorative 1 Pound 1994 in my collection.
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