The Val McDermid Mortuary revealed

Published On Tue 15 Jul 2014 by Grant Hill

She is already a critically acclaimed and bestselling author. Now the Scottish crime writer Val McDermid is to have a mortuary named after her at the University of Dundee.

Val was one of a group of leading crime writers who lent their support to the University’s `Million for a Morgue’ campaign. The public were asked to not only donate money to the campaign but to vote for which of the writers they would like the morgue to be named after.

The other authors who lent their support were Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, Jeff Lindsay, Stuart MacBride, Tess Gerritsen, Peter James, Kathy Reichs, Mark Billingham, Harlan Coben and Caro Ramsay.

With the campaign now closing, Val has emerged as the winner.

She said, “This is a very proud moment for me. I've known and admired Sue Black for nearly 20 years and it's a privilege to be associated with her and her department in this pioneering venture.

“The work that's being done in this mortuary and the knowledge it will communicate means better life chances for all of us. For once, we crime writers have had a chance to put life ahead of death and I'm thrilled to have been part of it. Million for a Morgue was a mad idea, but it's borne more fruit than any of us could imagine. A huge thanks to everyone who put their hands in their pockets to support the campaign.'

The University has also named a dissecting room in the new morgue after another of the writers, Stuart MacBride, who has been a passionate supporter of the campaign throughout.

“I'm very proud to have been involved in the campaign and while I didn't win the coveted prize of having it named after me, I couldn't have picked a better person to be pipped at the post by than Val,” said Stuart, author of the acclaimed Logan McRae novels.

“And finding out that they're going to include the Stuart MacBride Dissecting Room in the Val McDermid Mortuary is a really big honour for me. As runner-up prizes go it's pretty damn special. The readers have been incredibly generous, and I want to thank them all for helping Val, me, and the other crime writers, help Professor Sue Black get this amazing facility up and running. It's a really important project and every pound the public have donated is going to make a huge difference to the future of anatomy, forensic science, and medical training.”

Professor Sue Black heads the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification (CAHID) at the University of Dundee, where the new morgue has been built. She said, “The Million for a Morgue campaign has been a tremendous adventure for all of us and I am inordinately grateful to all of the authors who graciously gave of their time and their reputations to support Dundee.

“Val is a great friend to the Centre and the work we do and so I am truly delighted that the mortuary will be named after her but Stuart has been so pivotal in our success that we have also now chosen to name the dissecting room after him. All of our authors also now have a Thiel submersion tank that carries their name as our way of thanking them for the generosity of spirit.”

The campaign was launched to help build the first morgue in the country to use the Thiel method of embalming, bringing significant boosts to medical research and training in the UK. The Thiel method of embalming gives surgeons, dentists, scientists and researchers a more realistic method of testing techniques, practising procedures and developing new equipment and approaches.

The new Morgue is now up and running and helping change the face of anatomy teaching and research. 

“We are the first University in the UK to use Thiel embalming exclusively and it is an area where, working together with other colleagues in the University, we are can make significant breakthroughs and change the face of scientific, medical and dental research and training,” said Professor Black.

CAHID is one of the world’s foremost institutions for the study and application of human anatomy, forensic human identification, disaster victim identification and forensic and medical art. It was awarded a prestigious Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher Education this year in recognition of its `world class excellence’.

Professor Black and other members of the CAHID team featured in the major BBC2 series `History Cold Case’. The CAHID team have developed ground breaking techniques in areas such as hand identification, which has directly led to the successful prosecution of a number of paedophiles identified from images of their hands found in obscene photographs and films.

The Million for a Morgue campaign is almost complete although people can still donate in various ways including by purchasing Stuart MacBride’s specially written ` The Completely Wholesome Adventures of Skeleton Bob’ book, available through the University’s online store and other outlets.

For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk
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