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Memorial to James Moir

This obelisk, located within Sighthill Cemetery, is a memorial to James Moir, a Glasgow tea merchant.

As described in "Villages of Glasgow – North of the Clyde" (Aileen Smart, 2002), he was also known as the Gallowgate Slasher, but only because "he sold his wares at low prices".

The same work notes that that he was a great fighter for parliamentary reform, and that he left his collection of books to NS5765 : The Mitchell Library, where the James Moir Hall is named after him.

The inscription on the memorial itself says, in part, that he was "born at Stenhousemuir, Stirlingshire, 12th May, 1806 ... He died at Partick, 1st December, 1880. To continue his life's work he bequeathed to the Corporation and City of Glasgow his valuable library of 3250 volumes, to be added to the 'Mitchell Library' or any other public library for the use of the citizens of Glasgow, and the residue of his estate, amounting to upwards of twelve thousand pounds, for the purchase of books to be placed along with his books in the 'Mitchell' or other public library and called the Moir Collection".