Town discovers it has been honouring statue of the wrong John Walker for almost 40 years

For almost 40 years a bust has stood in Stockton-on-Tees in Country Durham commemorating match inventor John Walker.



John Walker invented the friction match in 1826 and sold his first from his pharmacy in the town the following year.



The inventor has been much celebrated by Stockton ever since and a celebratory bust was unveiled by the town's mayor in 1977.


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But nearly four decades on it has now been discovered the bust is of the wrong person. The bust was based on a portrait of an actor called John Walker, who had no connection to the town and had never even visited.