World-renowned naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace has taken pride of place in his home town two centuries on from his birth - in the form of a bronze bust.

The co-founder of the theory of evolution with Charles Darwin, who spent much of his life hunting exotic species in far flung islands, will now people-watch over Usk’s Twyn Square, after a fundraising effort by the town’s Civic Society to honour its most famous son.

Today comedian Bill Bailey will be in Usk to formally unveil the bust made by talented Usk resident Felicity Crawley.

Usk Civic Society chairman Tony Kear will be inviting Felicity, Bill Bailey and Dr George Beccaloni, director of the Wallace Correspondence Project and chairman of the Wallace Memorial Fund to unveil the sculpture.

In his BBC series Bill Bailey has remarked: “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.”

While Wallace’s role was overshadowed by his partner in the last century, his groundbreaking work has been rediscovered and celebrated in recent years, with the centenary of his death in 2013 pushing him firmly back into the spotlight.

His home town unveiled a small memorial to him next to St Madoc’s Church in Llanbadoc 13 years ago in a ceremony attended by his grandson Richard, but the bust mounted on a stone plinth will provide a more prominent celebration of such a key figure in scientific advancement.

More than £5,700 was raised in donations for the bust and plinth, which together measure 1.75m high and were installed alongside an interpretation board on the pavement at the junction of Castle Street and Twyn Square last Wednesday (October 20).

Sculpted by Felicity Crawley, wife of fund president Tom Crawley, the bust was cast at the Arch Bronze foundry in London and includes plaques showing birds of paradise and the Malay Archipelago where he explored.

Mr Crawley said: “Wallace has been under-recognised in the past, and we thought that Usk could help boost his profile. He was a very modest man that did not push himself onto people. When he was awarded the Order of Merit he refused to attend.

“When his family were told about plans to bury him in Westminster Abbey, they also refused as he had thought it inappropriate.”

Darwin, who published The Origin of Species the year after their joint paper to the Linnean Society in 1858, was lauded as the founder of the theory of evolution through natural selection in the 20th century.

Although famous in his own lifetime, Wallace’s role was largely forgotten after his death at the age of 90 in 1913, but that has all changed in the last decade.

A campaign launched in 2013 on the centenary of his death led to the reinstatement of a giant oil painting of Wallace at the Natural History Museum, near Darwin’s statue, and the creation of a bronze statue.

The painting was unveiled by Sir David Attenborough and comedian, naturalist and Strictly winner Bill Bailey, who also hosted a BBC TV series on the naturalist, while Wallace’s magnum opus The World of Life was also republished last summer.

Born over the river in Kensington Cottage in Llanbadoc 198 years ago (January 8, 1823), as a young boy he played beside and splashed in the river, perhaps inspiring his journeys of discovery to the Amazon basin and the Malay Archipelago many years later.

Indeed, he later wrote of his early memories of playing on the rocks in the River Usk and catching lampreys.

He was self-taught, and worked variously as a builder, watchmaker, surveyor and teacher to fund his passion for collecting species.

Meanwhile, work is ongoing on the conversion of the former Inn Between Pub on Bridge Street, which is set to be reopened as a guest house dedicated to Wallace.

The scheme is a joint project between Clive Jones who bought Wallace’s birthplace in 2010 and Usk resident and Cardiff University lecturer Professor Ken Wann.

To learn more about Wallace’s legacy, Bill Bailey’s Jungle Hero is currently available to watch on BBC iPlayer.