Hamish McHamish (1999 – 11 September 2014) was a ginger cat who lived in the town of

St Andrews St Andrews (; ; , pronounced ʰʲɪʎˈrˠiː.ɪɲ is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fourth-largest settleme ...

Fife Fife ( , ; ; ) is a council areas of Scotland, council area and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in Scotland. A peninsula, it is bordered by the Firth of Tay to the north, the North Sea to the east, the Firth of Forth to the s ...

, Scotland. He came to national and international prominence after the publication of a book entitled ''Hamish McHamish of St Andrews: Cool Cat About Town''. Hamish built up a following on social media, with a dedicated

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page and

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account set up by fans.

Early life

Hamish was born in 1999 and was initially owned by Marianne Baird, a retired

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producer, with whom he lived during his first year. During this time he became increasingly nomadic, often spending days away from home, being fed and watered at various homes in the town. He was known to spend most of his time in and around the houses and businesses on South Street, St Andrews, close to his original home. Throughout Hamish's life, Ms. Baird cared for his well-being by ensuring he attended a

veterinary surgeon Veterinary surgery is surgery performed on non-human animals by veterinarians, whereby the procedures fall into three broad categories: orthopaedics (bones, joints, muscles), soft tissue surgery (skin, body cavities, cardiovascular system, GI/u ...

every year for a health check and vaccinations.

Rise to fame

Home to the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

has a large population of tourists and students who had encountered Hamish throughout the years. Hamish had several regular spots where he spent his days. These were primarily local businesses near the Holy Trinity Church and Church Square in St Andrews. The creation of a Hamish McHamish Facebook profile, with in-character messages supposedly composed by the cat, raised his profile further; he had nearly 5,000 Facebook friends, and visitors to the town specifically sought him out to be photographed with him. A local bookshop had a "Hamish recommends" section, with cookbooks for fish and fiction featuring cats. The interest created by visitors, students and townsfolk led to the publication of a book about his everyday activities. ''Hamish McHamish of St Andrews: Cool Cat About Town'' was written by Susan McMullan. In January 2014, Hamish was chased by two dogs and escaped up a tree. He was helped to safety by university students and staff of a hairdressers he frequented to get his hair combed. This incident encouraged

Jim Leishman Jim Leishman MBE (born 15 November 1953) is a Scottish Labour Party politician and former professional football player and manager. He is currently Provost of Fife and an honorary director of Scottish Championship side Dunfermline Athletic ...

, Provost of Fife, to ask dog owners to ensure their pets were kept on a lead while near Hamish. He was featured on BBC television's ''

The One Show ''The One Show'' is a British television magazine and chat show programme. Broadcast live on BBC One weekdays at 7:00 pm, it features topical stories and studio guests. It is currently co-hosted by Alex Jones, Roman Kemp, Ronan Keating ...

'', and his story also appeared in newspapers across the world.

Statue

On 5 April 2014 a bronze statue of Hamish by David Annand was unveiled in Logies Lane by

. The funding for the statue was raised by a public donation campaign started by Flora Selwyn, the editor of
St Andrews in Focus - a community magazine
'.
, an independently owned & edited bimonthly magazine.

Death

Hamish died on 11 September 2014. A statement on his Facebook group said:

Bibliography

References