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As a result of his campaign the world wide Co-operative movement was founded.This is the life mask of Robert Owen, aged about 50. It is the face of a man who campaigned throughout his life 'to promote the well-being and happiness of every man, woman and child without regard ... (to)...sect, party, country and colour'. When he wrote those words to heads of government across the world in 1841, he was famous enough for them to listen.

Born in Newtown, Montgomeryshire, in 1771, he was, at 10,sent to London to be apprenticed as a draper. By his late twenties, through hard work, he was the manager and partner of a large cotton mill at New Lanark on the River Clyde.

Despite his commercial success, Owen had become concerned about the living and working conditions he had seen in the cotton towns and became convinced that universal education and better living conditions would improve lives 'a hundred fold'.

In 1812-13 he wrote 'A New View of Society' which explained his vision.
Robert Owen died in Newtown in 1858.

As a result of his campaign the world wide Co-operative movement was founded.