The Head boy and Head girl from Falmouth Primary Academy will plant a tree in Kimberly Park at 11 am on Friday 17 March. The tree is one of twenty, supplied by Cornwall Council as part of the Forest for Cornwall initiative, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Cornish-born philanthropist John Passmore Edwards.

Trees have been supplied to each of the local councils that have one of the twenty public buildings Passmore Edwards funded in Cornwall.

Passmore Edwards was born in Blackwater in 1823 but at the age of 20 he moved to Manchester and then to London where, after initial disappointments, he became a successful newspaper owner. An active campaigner for social and political reform he represented Salisbury in Parliament from 1880 to 1885, after which he commenced to redistribute the money he had earned by funding the building of more than 70 public buildings.

In Falmouth, Edwards funded both the Free Library and the former Cottage Hospital, now the Age UK Day Care Centre in Killigrew Street. A separate tree will be planted at the hospital site at a date to be confirmed.

Falmouth Library (Image: The Passmore Edwards Legacy)

In 1983 Edwards was presented with the honourary freedom of the borough of Falmouth, he said due to the towns surrounding of water he would build a lighthouse but the council decided they would rather have a library.

Events are taking place from March to November, in Cornwall and across the south of the country, to mark the bicentenary of Passmore Edwards.

The Cornwall Council 'Forest for Cornwall' initiative will see 10 million trees form 20,000 acres of new forest across the county. The initiative is part of the council's climate change action plan, aiming to be carbon neutral by 2030.

The programme aims to extend tree cover over an additional 2% of Cornwall's total land area and capture 1% of Cornwall's current greenhouse gas emissions, working alongside other natural climate solutions to draw carbon from the atmosphere.

You can find more about his legacy here: Passmore Edwards Free Library, Falmouth 1896