The work of Richard Leakey was brought to London in a huge exhibition on human origins, The Human Story, at the Commonwealth Institute, Kensington, in 1985. It was seen by hundreds of thousands, with queues snaking into Kensington High Street. Richard was enthusiastic, faith leaders declared that it should be acceptable to their followers, and James Porter, the institute’s director, toured it to museums round the world.
It was a high point in a late 80s flowering of the institute, which focused on the cultures of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, before the Foreign and Commonwealth Office closed it.
• The byline on this article was updated on 14 January 2022. While Rowland Bourne wrote the letter, as indicated in an earlier version, he has long been known as Richard Bourne.
