Freedom of the city, but why no plaque?
But while the freedom of Edinburgh is the highest honour that can be bestowed by the city, there is nowhere in the Capital where the recipients are recognised.
That could be about to change, as council chiefs consider a call for a memorial at the City Chambers displaying their names.
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Hide AdFreedom of the city was once needed by merchants in Edinburgh, but it became a symbolic honour in the early 19th century.
The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, Sir Sean, Nelson Mandela and Burmese pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi are the only living recipients.
The walls of the City Chambers are decorated with the names of the deans of guilds and other prestigious titles, yet only a "dusty old book" somewhere in the building names the freemen.
Lib Dem councillor Paul Edie has submitted a motion to the council calling for a "report on options for the prominent display in the City Chambers of the names of those granted freedom of the City of Edinburgh".
"In the quadrangle, we now have the handprint of (author) Ian Rankin, but the freedom of the city is the ultimate civic award," he said. "We have nothing to tell us who have been made freemen of the city, so I'm calling for suggestions on how to do this."
It is thought about 10,000 people have received the freedom of the city. The first was Sir Edward de Boncle, provost of the city's Trinity College, in 1459.
Recipients could go anywhere in the city without paying tolls, but the title now carries no specific privileges. Claims that a freeman can drive sheep down The Mound are – sadly – untrue.
Historian Patricia Player said: "We could find out about their occupations, how they lived."
THE GREAT AND THE GOOD
Famous recipients of the freedom of the city of Edinburgh.
Benjamin Franklin 1759
Walter Scott 1813
Charles Dickens 1841
Robert Peel 1842
William Gladstone 1853
David Livingstone 1857
Viscount Palmerston 1863
Benjamin Disraeli 1867
President Ulysses S Grant 1877
David Lloyd George 1918
Field-Marshal Sir Douglas Haig 1919
Alexander Graham Bell 1920
Stanley Baldwin 1926
Harry Lauder 1927
J M Barrie 1929
The Queen Mother 1936
Winston Churchill 1942
Dwight Eisenhower 1946
Queen Elizabeth II 1947
Prince Philip 1949
Earl Mountbatten 1954
Yehudi Menuhin 1965
Alexander Douglas-Home 1969
Sean Connery 1991
Nelson Mandela 1997
Aung San Suu Kyi 2005