Bernard Richard Meirion Darwin

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

JP (7 September 1876 − 18 October 1961) a grandson of the British naturalist

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

, was a

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

writer and high-standard

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

golfer. He was inducted into the

World Golf Hall of Fame The World Golf Hall of Fame is located at World Golf Village near St. Augustine, Florida, in the United States, and it is unusual among sports halls of fame in that a single site honors both men and women. It is supported by a consortium of 26 go ...

Biography

Born in

Downe Downe, formerly Down, () is a village in Greater London, England, located within the London Borough of Bromley but beyond the London urban sprawl. Downe is south west of Orpington and south east of Charing Cross. Downe lies on a hill, and ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, Darwin was the son of

Francis Darwin Sir Francis "Frank" Darwin (16 August 1848 – 19 September 1925) was a British botanist. He was the third son of the naturalist and scientist Charles Darwin. Biography Francis Darwin was born in Down House, Downe, Kent in 1848. He was the ...

and Amy Ruck, his mother dying from a fever on 11 September, four days after his birth. He was the first grandson of

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...

and

Emma Darwin Emma Darwin (; 2 May 1808 – 2 October 1896) was an English woman who was the wife and first cousin of Charles Darwin. They were married on 29 January 1839 and were the parents of ten children, seven of whom survived to adulthood. Early lif ...

(see

Darwin–Wedgwood family The Darwin–Wedgwood family are members of two connected families, each noted for particular prominent 18th-century figures: Erasmus Darwin, a physician and natural philosopher, and Josiah Wedgwood, a noted potter and founder of the eponymous ...

), and was brought up by them at their home,

Down House Down House is the former home of the English naturalist Charles Darwin and his family. It was in this house and garden that Darwin worked on his theory of evolution by natural selection, which he had conceived in London before moving to Down ...

. His younger half-sister from his father's second marriage to Ellen Wordswotth Crofts was the poet

Frances Cornford Frances Crofts Cornford (née Darwin; 30 March 1886 – 19 August 1960) was an English poet. Life She was the daughter of the botanist Francis Darwin and Newnham College fellow Ellen Wordsworth Crofts (1856-1903), and born into the Darwin ...

Darwin was educated at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...

, and graduated in

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

from

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

, where he was a

Cambridge Blue A blue is an award of sporting colours earned by athletes at some universities and schools for competition at the highest level. The awarding of blues began at Oxford and Cambridge universities in England. They are now awarded at a number of other ...

1895-1897, and team captain in his final year. Darwin married the engraver

Elinor Monsell Elinor Mary Darwin (née Monsell; 1879–1954) was an Irish born illustrator, engraver and portrait painter. Her illustrations were included in several of her husband, Bernard Darwin's books for children. Personal life Elinor Mary Monsell was ...

in 1906. They had one son, Sir

Robert Vere Darwin Sir Robert Vere "Robin" Darwin Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, KCB Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE Member of the Royal Academy, RA Member of the Royal Society of Arts, RSA President of the Royal Society of Painters in ...

, and two daughters; the potter

Ursula Mommens Ursula Frances Elinor Mommens (née Darwin, formerly Trevelyan; 20 August 1908 – 30 January 2010) was an English potter. Mommens studied at the Royal College of Art, under William Staite Murray, and later worked with Michael Cardew at Winch ...

, and Nicola Mary Elizabeth Darwin, later Hughes (1916–1976). During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he served with the

Royal Army Ordnance Corps The Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC) was a corps of the British Army. At its renaming as a Royal Corps in 1918 it was both a supply and repair corps. In the supply area it had responsibility for weapons, armoured vehicles and other military equip ...

in Macedonia as a

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...

. After Cambridge, Darwin became a court

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

, but did not particularly enjoy that career, and gradually moved into

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...

, despite having no formal training. He covered golf for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' from 1907 to 1953 and for '' Country Life'' from 1907 to 1961, the first writer ever to cover golf on a daily basis, instead of as an occasional feature. He played the game at an excellent level himself well into middle age, and competed in

The Amateur Championship The Amateur Championship (sometimes referred to as the British Amateur or British Amateur Championship outside the UK) is a golf tournament which has been held annually in the United Kingdom since 1885 except during the two World Wars, and in 19 ...

on 26 occasions across five decades between 1898 and 1935, with his best results being semi-final appearances in 1909 and 1921. In 1922, while in the United States to report on the first

Walker Cup The Walker Cup is a golf trophy contested in odd-numbered years by leading male amateur golfers in two teams: United States, and Great Britain and Ireland. The official name is the Walker Cup Match (not "Matches" as in Ryder Cup Matches). It is ...

amateur team match between Britain and Ireland and the U.S., and also appointed as non-playing captain, Darwin was pressed into service at the last minute as a player, when one of the British team members, Robert Harris, was unable to play. He lost his team match, but won his singles match. He was Captain of

The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews is one of the oldest golf clubs in the world. It is a private members-only club based in St Andrews in Scotland. It was previously known colloquially as "The R&A", but in 2004, a new organisation kn ...

in 1934, and was President of the

Golf Club Managers' Association The Golf Club Managers' Association, or GCMA (formerly the Association of Golf Club Secretaries) is a UK professional association for secretaries, managers, or owners of golf courses. The organisation was headquartered in Weston-super-Mare, Somer ...

(then the Association of Golf Club Secretaries) from 1933 to 1934 and then again from 1955 to 1958. Though mainly a golf writer, he also occasionally wrote on

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

, and prefaced the first edition of The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. He was awarded

in the

1937 Coronation Honours The 1937 Coronation Honours were awarded in honour of the coronation of George VI. Royal Honours Order of the Thistle * The Queen Royal Victorian Chain * The Queen * Queen Mary * Clive, Baron Wigram Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) * The Queen ...

. Bernard Darwin was an authority on

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

. He frequently contributed the fourth leading article in ''The Times''. The fourth Leader was devoted to flippant themes, and Darwin was known to insert quotes from or about Dickens in them. When Oxford Press issued all classics by Dickens around 1940, each with a foreword by a Dickensian scholar, Darwin was chosen to contribute the foreword to ''

The Pickwick Papers ''The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club'' (also known as ''The Pickwick Papers'') was Charles Dickens's first novel. Because of his success with ''Sketches by Boz'' published in 1836, Dickens was asked by the publisher Chapman & Hall to s ...

''. He was also asked by ''The Times'' to pen the main tribute to cricketer

W.G. Grace William Gilbert Grace (18 July 1848 – 23 October 1915) was an English amateur cricketer who was important in the development of the sport and is widely considered one of its greatest players. He played first-class cricket for a record-equal ...

when Grace's birth centenary was celebrated in 1948. The article has been included since in a few anthologies. Bernard Darwin's works were kept in print by

Herbert Warren Wind Herbert Warren Wind (August 11, 1916 – May 30, 2005) was an American sportswriter noted for his writings on golf. Early years Born in Brockton, Massachusetts, Wind began golf at age seven at the Thorny Lea Golf Club in Brockton, and played w ...

through his curated Classics of Golf Library. In 2005, Darwin was elected to the

, in the Lifetime Achievement category. He is buried in St Mary the Virgin Churchyard,

, Kent.

Bibliography

*''The World That Fred Made'' (Chatto & Windus, 1955) Autobiography *''Bernard Darwin on Golf'', *''The Golf Courses of the British Isles'' (1910) *''Golf Is My Game'' (with Bobby Jones) *''Playing the Like '' *''Golf'' *''Green Memories'' *''The Happy Golfer'' (his best articles from The American Golfer magazine, 1922–1936), 1997 *'' James Braid'', 1952 *''The classics of golf original edition of the Darwin sketchbook: Portraits of golf's greatest players and other selections from Bernard Darwin's writings, 1910–1955'' *''Golf Between Two Wars'' (Chatto & Windus, 1944) *''Darwin on the Green'' *'' A Round with Darwin'' *''Every Idle Dream'' (Illustrated by Elinor Darwin, Collins, 1948) *''British Golf'' (Collins, 1946) *''British clubs'' (1943) *''Tee shots and others'' *''Batsford Golf: Green Memories'' *''A Friendly Round'' *''A round of golf jokes'' *''The Games's Afoot!'' (Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd., 1926) *''Life Is Sweet Brother'' (Collins, 1940) *''Pack Clouds Away'' (Collins, 1941) *''Playing the like'' *''Golfing By-Paths'' (Country Life Ltd., 1946) *''A round of golf on the London & North Eastern Railway '' *''Second shots: Casual talks about golf'' *''Out of the Rough'' *''W. G. Grace: Great Lives'' (Duckworth, 1934) *''The Robinsons of Bristol ( E. S. & A. Robinson)'' *''Eton v. Harrow at Lord's'' *''Erasmus Darwin: Born 7 December 1881, killed in action 24 April 1915 '' *''The Tale of Mr. Tootleoo'', with Elinor Darwin 1925. (For children.) *''Tootleoo Two'', with Elinor Darwin 1927. (For children.) *''Mr. Tootleoo and Co.'', with Elinor Darwin 1935. (For children.) *''The Dickens advertiser: A collection of the advertisements in the original parts of novels by Charles Dickens'' (Elkin Mathews & Marrot, 1930) *''Fifty Years of Country Life'' (Country Life Ltd., 1947) (history of '' Country Life'' magazine) *''Dickens: Great Lives'' (Duckworth, 1933)

Amateur wins

*1919

Golf Illustrated Gold Vase The Golf Illustrated Gold Vase was a prestigious amateur golf tournament in England. It was a 36-hole scratch stroke play Stroke play, also known as medal play, is a scoring system in the sport of golf in which the total number of strokes is co ...

Results in major championships

Note: Darwin played in only

. NT = No tournament
DNP = Did not play
R512, R256, R128, R64, R32, R16, QF, SF = Round in which player lost in match play
Yellow background for top-10
Sources::Source for 1898 British Amateur:
The Glasgow Herald, 26 May 1898, pg. 11.
:Source for 1899 British Amateur:
The Glasgow Herald, 25 May 1899, pg. 8.
:Source for 1902 British Amateur:
The Glasgow Herald, 1 May 1902, pg. 11.
:Source for 1903 British Amateur:
The Glasgow Herald, 20 May 1903, pg. 13.
:Source for 1904 British Amateur:
The Glasgow Herald, 2 June 1904, pg. 13.
:Source for 1908 British Amateur:
The Glasgow Herald, 29 May 1908, pg. 14.
:Source for 1909 British Amateur:
The American Golfer, July, 1909, pg. 13.
:Source for 1910 British Amateur:
The Glasgow Herald, 1 June 1910, pg. 10.
:Source for 1911 British Amateur:
The Glasgow Herald, 1 June 1911, pg. 10.
:Source for 1912 British Amateur:
The American Golfer, July, 1912, pg. 199.
:Source for 1913 British Amateur:
The Glasgow Herald, 28 May 1913, pg. 15.
:Source for 1914 British Amateur:
The Glasgow Herald, 20 May 1914, pg. 12.
:Source for 1920 British Amateur:
The Glasgow Herald, 8 June 1920, pg. 12.
:Source for 1921 British Amateur:
The American Golfer, 4 June 1921, pg. 24.
:Source for 1922 British Amateur:
The American Golfer, 1 July 1922, pg. 30.
:Source for 1923 British Amateur:
The Glasgow Herald, 9 May 1923, pg. 13.
:Source for 1924 British Amateur:
The Glasgow Herald, 27 May 1924, pg. 3.
:Source for 1925 British Amateur:
The Glasgow Herald, 27 May 1925, pg. 11.
:Source for 1927 British Amateur:
The Glasgow Herald, 24 May 1927, pg. 10.
:Source for 1928 British Amateur:
The Glasgow Herald, 22 May 1928, pg. 4.
:Source for 1929 British Amateur:
The Glasgow Herald, 13 June 1929, pg. 10.
:Source for 1930 British Amateur:
The Glasgow Herald, 27 May 1930, pg. 3.
:Source for 1931 British Amateur:
The Glasgow Herald, 21 May 1931, pg. 16.
:Source for 1932 British Amateur:
The Glasgow Herald, 26 May 1932, pg. 17.
:Source for 1933 British Amateur:
The Glasgow Herald, 21 June 1933, pg. 5.
:Source for 1935 British Amateur:
The Glasgow Herald, 22 May 1935, pg. 7.

Team appearances

(representing Great Britain):

1922 Events January * January 7 – Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic), Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes. * January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éirean ...

England–Scotland Amateur Match The England–Scotland Amateur Match was an annual men's amateur golf competition between teams representing England and Scotland. It was played from 1902 to 1931, although the match lapsed between 1913 and 1921. The match continued after 1931 but ...

(representing England): 1902, 1904, 1905, 1908, 1909, 1910 (winners), 1923, 1924 (winners)

References

External links

*
Profile at golfonline.comArticles by Bernard DarwinSoHG Archives
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Darwin, Bernard 1876 births 1961 deaths Burials in Kent Military personnel from Kent People educated at Eton College Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge British Army personnel of World War I Royal Army Ordnance Corps officers English male golfers Amateur golfers Golf writers and broadcasters Cricket historians and writers World Golf Hall of Fame inductees British sportswriters Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Darwin–Wedgwood family Country Life (magazine) people