Bust of match inventor honours wrong man

  • 17/02/2016
Bust of match inventor honours wrong man

A mix-up over the man who invented matches has fired up residents of a town in the UK.

It turns out that for nearly 40 years the town has been honouring the wrong man.

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

Mr 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.

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.

Watch the video for the full ITV News report.