Philanthropist and Politician Anthony Ashley-Cooper, seventh Earl of Shaftesbury married Lady Emily Cowper, whose widowed mother became the wife of the third Viscount Palmerston (later Prime Minister). Shaftesbury served as MP for Dorchester, Dorset and Bath. He became President of the Church Pastoral Aid Society and commissioner of the Board of Health. In 1861 he was awarded the Order of the Garter.
This plaster cast, taken from a cast in the National Portrait Gallery, was commissioned in 1977 for display in the government offices of the Employment Appeals Tribunal. The original terracotta version of the bust, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1876, remains at St. Giles House, the seat of the Earls of Shaftesbury at Wimborne St Giles in Dorset.
