A SPECIAL plaque is to adorn the Malvern building where US president Franklin D Roosevelt was looked after as a sick child.

It will be one of a series of signs highlighting the town's brushes with the great and the good.

Aldwyn Tower, in St Ann's Road, was a grand spa-type hotel when the child who later became the 31st president of the United States stayed there in 1889. He was just seven years old and had been sent to Malvern to recover from tuberculosis.

The hotel later received a letter from Roosevelt's parents, thanking staff for the treatment he received.

Now his stay in the town is to be marked with a blue plaque on the grade II-listed building, which is being turned into luxury flats, after permission was recently granted by planners.

Malvern Civic Society has been offered a £1,000 grant from Malvern Hills District Council to put up more than 10 plaques around the town identifying the well-known people who have lived or stayed there.

A plaque has also been approved for the Unicorn Inn, Belle Vue Terrace, where Chronicles of Narnia author and former Malvern College pupil CS Lewis frequently met with literary friends, including the author of the famous Lord Of The Rings trilogy, JRR Tolkien.

Society member Tim Gunter said they had tackled the two buildings first because they had thought they would be the hardest to get planning permission for.

The society has decided to focus first on properties within walking distance of the town centre.

Among the other locations it hopes to mark in the town are, Holly Mount, Worcester Road, where Queen Victoria holidayed, and the various properties where renowned Worcestershire composer Sir Edward Elgar lived.

The plaques are being made by a company on the west coast of Wales.

Mr Gunter said he hoped the first two would be in place in the next couple of months.

He said: "I'm exceptionally relieved that at last we're getting somewhere. It has taken us some time to get here.

"The idea initially is to focus on properties within walking distance of the centre because it's partly to do with encouraging visitors to walk around and see places of interest."