Prime Minister Gladstone had the Irish problem to contend with, the Archbishop
of Canterbury was unfortunately indisposed, and the Dean of Westminster Abbey
happened to be abroad.
The ten pallbearers included two dukes, a number of ambassadors and Darwin’s
close friends and scientific collaborators Thomas Huxley, Joseph Hooker and, most
importantly, the co-founder of the theory of the origin of species Alfred Russel Wallace.
After the ceremony one of the lords apparently asked Huxley, ‘Do you believe that
Darwin was right?’ ‘Of course he was right,’ replied Huxley. His lordship then looked
around the vastness of the Abbey with a pained expression on his face and said in a
low tone, ‘Couldn’t he have just kept it to himself?’ Which of course is exactly what
he did for twenty years – until the unexpected and probably unwelcome arrival of
Alfred Russel Wallace’s ‘Letter from Ternate’.
In 1908, the Linnean Society observed the fiftieth anniversary of the joint
publication of Darwin’s and Wallace’s papers by casting a gold medal with the busts
of the scientists on either side. It was presented to Alfred Russel Wallace in the manner
of a Nobel Prize of its time. In that same year Wallace received the Order of Merit
from King Edward, which is the highest decoration for achievement given by the
Crown for those who have distinguished themselves in science, literature, or the arts.
Despite all his exertions in the Malay and Indonesian archipelagos, Wallace lived
to a grand old age of ninety and died in 1913. Some of his friends suggested that he be
buried in Westminster Abbey, but his wife followed his wishes and had him buried in
a small cemetery near his home at Broadstone after a service conducted by the Bishop
of Salisbury. Later, several prominent British scientists formed a committee to have a
medallion of Alfred Russel Wallace placed in Westminster Abbey near where Darwin
is buried; it was unveiled on 1 November 1915. A memorial written by E.R. Sykes of
the Dorset Field Club reads:
By the death of Alfred Russel Wallace the last link with the great workers on evolution,
whose names adorn the mid-nineteenth century, is broken. One by one, Darwin, Hooker,
Huxley, &c., they have passed away, and now death has taken from us the last, and one of
the greatest. We, of the Dorset Field Club, have a special interest in Wallace; he was an
Ordinary Member of the Club for some years, and in 1909 became one of our Honorary
Members; to many of us he was personally known, and not a mere abstract personality ...
Wallace occupied his rightful position as one of the leaders of scientific thought; slowly, but
steadily, recognition and honours poured in upon him; and he held his place until death, on
November 7th, 1913, in his ninety-first year, removed him from amongst us.The lives and works of Carl Linnaeus, Joseph Banks, Charles Darwin and Alfred
Russel Wallace intersect in the collections of the Natural History Museum in South
Kensington, London. The museum has one of the finest collections of Linnaean
194 Where Australia Collides with Asia
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