A SPECIAL guest star will be in attendance at the weekend as Usk pays tribute to one of its most important but oft-overlooked sons.

On Saturday, November 6, Usk residents and visitors will gather to pay respect to the great Usk-born naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, co-discoverer with Charles Darwin of the theory of evolution by natural selection.

At 11.25am comedian and Strictly Come Dancing champion Bill Bailey, Patron of the Wallace Memorial Fund, will accompany Dr George Beccaloni, Director of the Wallace Correspondence Project, in formally unveilling a bronze bust of Wallace.

The bust has been created by Usk’s Felicity Crawley, who sculpted it based on the earliest surviving photograph of Wallace aged 25.

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After seven years of planning and fundraising, the bust has at last been erected in Twyn Square near the former HSBC bank, on a plinth of rare fossil-rich Portland Roach stone.

Usk Civic Society chairman Tony Kear said: “We are so delighted that such a world-renowned naturalist and one of the greatest scientists of all time, has finally been formally recognised in his home town nearly 200 years after his birth.

"It’s been a long journey for Usk Civic Society, but we incredibly proud to have reached this milestone."

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Mr Wallace was born in 1823, in Kensington Cottage, just across the river between Usk and Llanbadoc.

Mr Bailey said: "I first heard about Wallace while I was trekking through the jungles of Indonesia 15 years ago and I've been fascinated by him ever since.

"This geeky Victorian collector changed our understanding of life on Earth.

"Along with Charles Darwin, he came up with one of the greatest scientific ideas of all time: the theory of evolution by natural selection.

"These two men independently came up with the same explosive theory, but now, a hundred years on, Wallace has been forgotten. I guess you could say he's the Missing Link in the story of evolution."

The bust will be formally unveiled on Saturday, November 6, beginning at 11.15am.