A PORTRAIT of a Kirkconnel-born railwayman, poet and librarion has returned to Upper Nithsdale for the first time.

Alexander Anderson used the pen name 'Surfaceman’ when he wrote his most famous poem 'Cuddle Doon.’ The portrait of him was painted in 1882 by James Paterson of moniaive and it can now be seen, along with a collection of memoribilia, in Sanquhar Tolbooth museum.

Anderson was the sixth child of James Anderson, a quarrier. The family moved to Kirkpatrick Durham for a few years but returned to Kirkconnel where Alexander, in his late teens, took a labouring job as a surfaceman on the Glasgow and South-Western Railway, laying and maintaining the rail tracks.

In his spare time, he educated himself in several languages and read widely. In the 1860s Anderson began to have poems published in “The People’s Journal”, “The People’s Friend” and other magazines, and brought out his first collection, “A Song of Labour and other Poems” in 1873. This was followed by three further collections while “Later Poems” was published posthumously in 1912.

In 1880 he became the assistant librarian at the University of Edinburgh, eventually becoming the Chief Librarian. Anderson was a popular character in artistic and academic circles and met notable figures of his time including local antiquarian Dr T B Grierson, philosopher Thomas Carlyle, African explorer Joseph Thomson and pre-Raphaelite painter Sir Joseph Noel Paton.

He never married and lodged with Alexander and Margaret Stewart in Edinburgh for over 20 years. After his death in 1909 several personal items were left with Margaret. These items were passed down through her family until they were purchased for the museum’s collection in 2013 with the assistance of the National Fund for Acquisitions administered with Government funds by the National Museums of Scotland.

The portrait and memoribilia can be seen until September 30 in the museum, Monday to Saturday 10am - 1pm and 2 - 5pm and Sunday 2pm-5pm.

Admission is free.

For more information visit www.dumgal.gov.uk/artsandmuseums, telephone 01659 50186 or email dumfries.museum@dumgal.gov.uk