Head-and-part-shoulders marble bust, on a round socle, of Sir Joseph Banks. The shoulders are hollowed on the reverse to a central support, the lower right side of which bears the signature, 'P. Turnerelli / Fecit 1814'.

This is a version of the primary example made for the Royal College of Surgeons, London, which is also of 1814 and was shown at the Royal Academy that year. This one was presented to Greenwich Hospital in 1850 by Captain Sir Everard Home RN CB. Banks was the most eminent man of science of his age. A Lincolnshire landowner and keen amateur botanist, the foundations on which he rose to become President of the Royal Society and a national arbiter of scientific matters, were laid when he accompanied Captain Cook on his first voyage to the Pacific, in the 'Endeavour', 1768-70.