A SMALL crowd gathered in Usk on Saturday morning as comedian Bill Bailey formally unveiled a sculpture of forgotten naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace.

Mr Bailey is a long-time admirer of the work of Mr Wallace and is Patron of the Wallace Memorial Fund.

He was joined by Dr George Beccaloni, Director of the Wallace Correspondence Project and the sculptor Felicity Crawley.

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Members of the South Wales Argus Camera Club, Chris Sheehy and Marks Adams, managed to capture some fantastic images of the unveiling.

Born in 1823, in Kensington Cottage, just across the river between Usk and Llanbadoc, Mr Wallace was a scientist who did extensive fieldwork around the world and contributed greatly to scientific theory.

Mr Wallace independently realised the theory of natural selection, before Charles Darwin's work was internationally recognised and his work prompted Mr Darwin to publish his most famous work, On the Origin of Species.

He was also a vocal social activist and died aged 90 in Dorset.

The bronze bust of him in Usk is based on a photograph of him when he was 25 years old and is located in Twyn Square near the former HSBC bank.

It has taken seven years of planning and fundraising to get the sculpture made and placed in Usk.

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