Thomas Telford £10 vote hits a dud note
Shropshire's industrial pioneer Thomas Telford has missed out on the chance to be the face of Scotland's new £10 note – despite topping a poll to decide on the matter.
The Royal Bank of Scotland has instead decided that Mary Somerville will be the new face of the currency, after suspicion over a late voting flurry that helped Telford win the vote.
RBS smelled a rat when the massively influential civil engineer – after whom Shropshire's new town is named – rapidly moved from last place, on 500 votes, to top the bill with more than 5,100 in the final hours of voting. Mary Somerville polled 4,300.
But with the majority of votes for Somerville coming from the UK, and the late surge for Telford originating overseas, RBS has decided to use the science writer's image.
Malcolm Buchanan, chair of RBS's Scotland board, said: "I was overwhelmed by the response to this initiative – a first for the Royal Bank of Scotland – and would like to thank all those who took the time to vote.
"Having the opportunity to choose the face of our new £10 notes obviously meant a great deal to a great number of people.
"Any of our final nominees would have been worthy winners and we wanted to make sure that our choice properly reflected the wishes of those who took part.
"Mary Somerville's immense contribution to science and her determination to succeed against all the odds clearly resonate as much today as they did during her lifetime."
The poll could have been fixed either by users repeatedly refreshing their browsers to submit multiple votes, or by use of automated software bots in a process known as "swarming".
Telford amassed around 4,500 votes in a matter of hours to top the poll with 5,100 votes. He had been third behind theoretical physicist James Clerk Maxwell as the deadline neared.
The vote was conducted on its Facebook page by allowing members of the public to "like" pictures of Telford, Somerville, and theoretical physicist James Clerk Maxwell.
The bank says that while all three of the suggested candidates were strong choices to be the face of the currency, they wanted to ensure that the vote reflected the opinions of the Scottish public.
Telford had a solid claim for being immortalised on the £10 note, thanks to his huge range of ground-breaking engineering projects, but Somerville garnered huge support, and now becomes the first woman apart from the Queen to appear on an RBS note.
