The 200th anniversary of the birth of Scottish missionary and explorer Dr David Livingstone is being marked by events in Scotland and London. Members of the governments of Scotland and Malawi will be attending a full day of events at the David Livingstone Centre in Blantyre, South Lanarkshire. Meanwhile in London a memorial service will be held at Westminster Abbey, where Livingstone was buried in 1874.

All these events take place today, alongside events in Africa to commemorate the great man. Local school children from Blantyre will bury a time capsule, which includes contributions from children in Malawi as part of the celebrations in Scotland and will be joined by Malawi’s president Joyce Banda and Scottish minister Alex Salmond

President Banda will then fly down to London to attend the memorial service as Guest of Honour, which will also be attended by Elspeth Murdoch, the 84 year old great-granddaughter of Dr Livingstone, as well as modern day explorers John Blashford-Snell and Sir David Attenborough.

Other events set to take place include an Art Festival in Livingstone, Zambia and a 1000km mountain bike tour across South Africa. Lets hope they have the latest cycling clothing and equipment.

Dr Livingstone grew up in poverty but went on to explore central and southern Africa, where he became the first European to find and name Victoria Falls. He also advanced the use of medicine, especially the use of quinine in the fight against malaria. He actually developed a malaria treatment which was later sold as “Livingstone’s Rousers”.

His best selling travelogue “Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa” helped research on tropical diseases for decades. He also became part of the campaign to abolish slavery. Most of his missionary and medical work was in what is now Malawi.

He died from malaria himself on 1st May 1873, just under two years after his historic meeting with Henry Stanley, in Ilala, a village south-east of Lake Bangwulu, which is situated in modern day Zambia.Not a bad life for the son of mill-workers who is now described as being “Africa’s first freedom fighter”.