Sir Sandford Fleming was a Scottish engineer and inventor, born in Kirkcaldy in 1827.
He pioneered the changes to standard time and time zones for the whole world.
Fleming emigrated to Canada in 1845 where he trained as an engineer, working on many major railway projects throughout his career.
After his retirement he served as chancellor of Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and devoted himself to scientific projects and writing.
1876 a confusion over a railway timetable in Ireland led Fleming to propose a single 24 hour clock for the whole world. In 1879 he proposed tying this to the Greewich Meridian and using standardised time zones around the world. By the 1920s time zones were almost universally in use.
The memorial sundial is analemmatic type of sundial that lies flat on the ground and the person casts the shadow to show the time.
The sundial is located at the east end of the waterfront.
