A former senior councillor has called for a permanent tribute to the real life 'Uncle Sam' in Scotland.

Chris McEleny, a former Inverclyde Councillor, says the move could help attract more tourists to the area.

Now General Secretary of pro independence Alba Party, Mr McEleny says that only about 10% of the hundreds of thousands of cruise passengers that visit Greenock each year stay in the area.

He believes that a tribute to the historic figure could attract many American cruise passengers and those that visit Greenock to stay in Inverclyde. 

Uncle Sam is a common nickname for the United States or the country's federal government. According to legend, a meat packer from Troy, New York, named Samuel Wilson, who supplied meat to the US army during the 1800s, is the original Uncle Sam.

READ MORE: Can Scottish tourism industry learn from Portugal?

During the 1812 - 1815 war between the United States and the United Kingdom Wilson and his brother Ebenezer were contracted by Elbert Anderson to provide beef for soldiers stationed at Greenbush, New York.  All provisions had to be stamped, and the initials E.A.-U.S. appeared on the barrels of meat from the Wilsons.

As legend has it,  a soldier asked what those initials meant and the reply, from a local, was Elbert Anderson and Uncle Sam.  The name caught on and any other wagons or barrels carrying the initials U.S. was deemed to be from Uncle Sam.

According to McEleny, a lost Inverclyde Council report highlighted how genealogists traced Samuel's family back to three brothers who emigrated from Greenock for a new life in America in the 1600's.

McEleny says that Samuel's grandfather was a Robert Wilson from Greenock who settled in Massachusetts. 

He has now called on Inverclyde Council bosses to progress the idea in an attempt to make Inverclyde a go to place for any American that visits Scotland. 

Mr McEleny said: “Greenock has some of the most historic connections in Scotland to the United States. Not all good of course as the Bank of Greenock was a key financier of the American Civil War. 

“However, everyone in America knows who Uncle Sam is. Over 750,000 American tourists came to Scotland last year bringing over £1.2bn into the economy. If we could attract only 10% of that then that level of expenditure would be transformative for Greenock and Inverclyde. 

“Inverclyde Council should seriously look into adding a permanent tribute to Uncle Sam into our historic quarter - and a facility that tells the story of Greenock’s long relationship with America. That could be just the thing to keep cruise passengers in the area and encourage others to join them.”