FORMER Conservative MP and Orsett Teresa Gorman left an estate worth £2.8 million and a last request to have herself immortalised as the topless figurehead on a replica of Charles Darwin’s ship HMS Beagle reports the Daily Mail.
Mrs Gorman, who was one of the Eurosceptics described as ‘b******s’ by John Major when he was Prime Minister, died last August aged 83.
The biology graduate was a ‘profound fan’ of Darwin and told her second husband, Peter Clarke, who survives her, that she wanted to make a major donation to the HMS Beagle Project charity.
Her gift will help build a replica of the 90ft ship, which took the naturalist around the world on scientific voyages from 1831 to 1836, helping him to form his theory of evolution. In return, the charity has agreed the new ship will have a mermaid on her prow, modelled on Mrs Gorman.
Beagle project co-ordinator David Lort-Phillips said Mrs Gorman had previously made a £100,000 donation to the charity in 2011.
He added: ‘We were extremely grateful for her earlier donation. Anything we get from
her estate in the future will also be appreciated.’
Mr Clarke, 69, said Teresa Gorman had asked that the figurehead should have ‘slightly enhanced bosoms’
