Charles darwin and alfred wallace9/12/2023 ![]() This was to be to the Malay Archipelago, which mostly lies within modern-day Indonesia. ![]() Tragically these plans were thwarted on the journey back to England, Wallace was forced to abandon many of his collections after his boat caught fire off Bermuda.Ī setback such as this would have deterred many a lesser man, but Wallace soon set about organising his next expedition. Today it is perhaps hard to believe that such an adventure could be considered as a potential route to fame and fortune Wallace’s plan was to profit from the Victorian mania for natural history, by selling his specimens to collectors. They spent much of the next four years collecting thousands of specimens in the region, including hundreds of species of insects, as well as many birds and plants. In 1848, Wallace and Bates set off for the Amazon together, aged 25 and 22 respectively. Bates had introduced Wallace to the joys of beetle hunting, and the two young men regularly exchanged information on their latest finds. However, it was not until he met another enthusiastic young naturalist, Henry Walter Bates, that he began to realise his ambitions. Such stirring descriptions of scientific exploration must have awakened in Alfred a thirst for adventure that his existing employment failed to slake. Patron of the Alfred Russel Wallace Society, Bill Bailey, at the Natural History Museum Volumes that particularly inspired him included Darwin’s Journal of the Voyage of the Beagle and Alexander von Humboldt’s epic accounts of his explorations in the Amazon. ![]() His scientific knowledge was largely self-taught, acquired through avid reading of the latest scientific literature. With his elder brother, he travelled widely throughout the country, his work enabling him to pursue the outdoor life that he had enjoyed from an early age – a love of nature, particularly of plants, which he started to collect and identify. The son of a solicitor, Wallace had worked as a land surveyor at the time of the great Victorian railway expansion. This year is the centenary of his death, and it is a fitting time to remember the scientific legacy of this great naturalist.Īlthough Wallace was originally born in southern Wales, he spent the later years of his life at a number of homes in Dorset, including both in Parkstone and finally in Broadstone. It is a peaceful spot, perhaps a relict of a quieter age. Today his grave is marked by a monument of fossil wood collected from a Dorset beach, and lies in a quiet corner of this Victorian cemetery. At its destination, a small crowd had gathered to witness the laying to rest of a great naturalist, one who had played a leading role in developing the most important scientific discovery of the era: the theory of evolution by natural selection.įew people now know the name of Alfred Russel Wallace, realise that Broadstone is his final resting place, nor know that it was he who shared the discovery of evolutionary theory with Charles Darwin. If you had been standing in Broadstone, around a century ago, you might have witnessed the passing of a funeral cortege on its way towards the cemetery and been impressed by the smart horse-drawn carriage, its attendants dressed in top hats and long overcoats demanded by Victorian society. The plaque memorialising Wallace in Broadstone Cemetery
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