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THIS OBJECT IS PART OF THE PROJECT 'A HISTORY OF CORNWALL IN 100 OBJECTS'.

ST AGNES MUSEUM. John Passmore Edwards was Cornwall's best known philanthropist and radical journalist and was-born at Blackwater in St Agnes parish. In his lifetime he paid for 20 public buildings in Cornwall ranging from literary institutes to schools, libraries and Newlyn Art Gallery. Nearly 50 similar buildings were built in London and elsewhere. 2011 is the centenary of Passmore Edward's death.

This bust of the great man was made by local sculptor Ron Wood in 1991. Made of bronze painted fibre glass, it was purchased for the museum in the following year. In 2007 three letters by the 'Cornish Carnegie' were also bought for the museum collections. The earliest, dated January 7 1883, concerns the successful passage of the Cruelty to Animals Bill through Parliament (designed to stop the shooting of tame pigeons of which he thoroughly disapproved) when he was an MP, while the last of 1903 concerns his second refusal of a knighthood.

Photo: Bernie Pettersen