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
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 ...
.
Biography
![PSM V76 D030 Francis Darwin](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/PSM_V76_D030_Francis_Darwin.png)
Francis Darwin was born in
Down House,
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 ...
in 1848. He was the third son and seventh child of Charles Darwin and his wife
Emma Wedgwood
Emma Darwin (; 2 May 1808 – 2 October 1896) was an English woman who was the cousin marriage, 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 adulth ...
. He was educated at
Clapham
Clapham () is a suburb in south west London, England, lying mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, but with some areas (most notably Clapham Common) extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth.
History
Early history ...
Grammar School.
He then went to
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...
, first studying
mathematics, then changing to
natural sciences, graduating in 1870. He then went to study medicine at
St George's Medical School, London, earning an
MB in 1875, but did not practise medicine.
Darwin was married three times and widowed twice. First he married Amy Richenda Ruck in 1874, but she died in 1876 four days after the birth of their son
Bernard Darwin, who was later to become a golf writer. In September 1883 he married
Ellen Wordsworth Crofts (1856–1903) and they had a daughter
Frances Crofts Darwin (1886–1960), a poet who married the poet
Francis Cornford
Francis Macdonald Cornford (27 February 1874 – 3 January 1943) was an English classical scholar and translator known for work on ancient philosophy, notably Plato, Parmenides, Thucydides, and ancient Greek religion. Frances Cornford, his w ...
and became known under her married name. His third wife was
Florence Henrietta Fisher
Florence Henrietta Darwin, Lady Darwin (''née'' Fisher, previously Maitland; 31 January 18645 March 1920), was an English playwright.
Early life
Florence Henrietta Fisher was born in Kensington, London, to Herbert William Fisher and his wife M ...
, daughter of
Herbert William Fisher
Herbert William Fisher (30 July 1826 – 17 January 1903) was a British historian, best known for his book ''Considerations on the Origin of the American War'' (1865).
Life
He was born at Poulshot, Wiltshire, the son of Rev. William Fisher"The Pr ...
and widow of
Frederic William Maitland
Frederic William Maitland (28 May 1850 – ) was an English historian and lawyer who is regarded as the modern father of English legal history.
Early life and education, 1850–72
Frederic William Maitland was born at 53 Guilford Street, L ...
, whom he married in 1913, the year in which he was
knighted. Her sister Adeline Fisher was the first wife of Darwin's double first cousin once removed
Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Francis Darwin worked with his father on experiments dealing with
plant movements, specifically
phototropism. They co-authored ''
The Power of Movement in Plants
''The Power of Movement in Plants'' is a book by Charles Darwin on phototropism and other types of movement in plants. This book continues his work in producing evidence for his theory of natural selection. As it was one of his last books, fol ...
'' (1880) and Francis Darwin published a second expanded edition of ''
Insectivorous Plants'' (1888) after his father's death.
Their experiments showed that the
coleoptile
Coleoptile is the pointed protective sheath covering the emerging shoot in monocotyledons such as grasses in which few leaf primordia and shoot apex of monocot embryo remain enclosed. The coleoptile protects the first leaf as well as the growing ...
of a young grass seedling directs its growth toward the light by comparing the responses of seedlings with covered and uncovered coleoptiles. These observations would later lead to the discovery of
auxin.
Darwin was nominated by his father to the
Linnean Society of London
The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...
in 1875, and was elected as a Fellow of the Society on 2 December 1875. He was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society
Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...
on 8 June 1882,
the same year in which his father died. Darwin edited ''
The Autobiography of Charles Darwin
''The Autobiography of Charles Darwin'' is an autobiography by the English naturalist Charles Darwin.
Darwin wrote the text, which he entitled ''Recollections of the Development of my Mind and Character'', for his family. He states that he star ...
'' (1887), and produced some books of letters from the
correspondence of Charles Darwin
The British naturalist Charles Darwin corresponded with his extended family and with an extraordinarily wide range of people from all over the world. The letters, over 15,000 in all, provide many insights on issues ranging from the origins of ...
; ''The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin'' (1887) and ''More Letters of Charles Darwin'' (1905). He also edited
Thomas Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895) was an English biologist and anthropologist specialising in comparative anatomy. He has become known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
The stor ...
's ''On the Reception of the Origin of Species'' (1887).
Cambridge University
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...
awarded him an honorary doctorate (DSc) in 1909. He also received honorary doctorates from
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
,
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
,
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...
,
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
,
St Andrews,
Upsala, and
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
. He was knighted in 1913.
He is buried in Cambridge. His daughter,
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 Darw ...
, was later buried with him.
Family
His first wife, Amy Ruck, died in 1876, a few days after the birth of her son
Bernard
Bernard ('' Bernhard'') is a French and West Germanic masculine given name. It is also a surname.
The name is attested from at least the 9th century. West Germanic ''Bernhard'' is composed from the two elements ''bern'' "bear" and ''hard'' "bra ...
, and was buried in Holy Trinity Church,
Corris
Corris is a village in the county of Gwynedd, Wales, about north of the town of Machynlleth. The village lies on the west bank of the Afon Dulas (which here forms the boundary with Powys), around that river's confluence with the Afon Deri ...
, North Wales. According to a letter written by Charles Darwin to his close friend,
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (30 June 1817 – 10 December 1911) was a British botanist and explorer in the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For twenty years he served as director of ...
: " I never saw anyone suffer so much as poor Frank. He has gone to N. Wales to bury the body in a little church-yard amongst the mountains".
He married his second wife,
Ellen Wordsworth Crofts, in 1883. She was a Fellow and lecturer at
Newnham College
Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge.
The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millice ...
. She was a member of the
Ladies Dining Society
The Ladies Dining Society was a private women's dining and discussion club, based at Cambridge University. It was founded in 1890 by the author Louise Creighton and the women's activist Kathleen Lyttelton. Its members, most of whom were marr ...
in Cambridge, together with 11 other members. She died in 1903, and is buried in the churchyard of St. Andrew's Church,
Girton.
In 1913, he married his third wife, Lady
Florence Henrietta Fisher
Florence Henrietta Darwin, Lady Darwin (''née'' Fisher, previously Maitland; 31 January 18645 March 1920), was an English playwright.
Early life
Florence Henrietta Fisher was born in Kensington, London, to Herbert William Fisher and his wife M ...
, the widow of
Frederic William Maitland
Frederic William Maitland (28 May 1850 – ) was an English historian and lawyer who is regarded as the modern father of English legal history.
Early life and education, 1850–72
Frederic William Maitland was born at 53 Guilford Street, L ...
. She died in 1920 and is interred in the
Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground, Cambridge, opposite the grave of Sir Francis Darwin and his daughter Frances Cornford.
Publications
*''Life and Letters of Charles Darwin'' (1880); (revised 2nd edition, 1887);
2nd printing of revised edition, 1888
*''The Power of Movement in Plants'' (1880)
*''The Practical Physiology of Plants'' (1894)
*''Elements of Botany'' (1895)
''Rustic Sounds and Other Studies in Literature and Natural History''(1917)
See also
*
Dorothea Pertz with whom he coauthored five papers
References
*
Further reading
* Ayres, Peter. "The Aliveness of Plants: The Darwins at the Dawn of Plant Science" London: PIckering & Chatto, 2008.
* Darwin, Francis Sacheverell. (1927). ''Travels in Spain and the East, 1808-1810''. Cambridge University press (reissued by
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer.
Cambridge University Pre ...
, 2009; )
External links
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Darwin, Francis
English biologists
English botanists
Fellows of the Royal Society
Fellows of the Linnean Society of London
Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
Knights Bachelor
Charles Darwin biographers
Darwin–Wedgwood family
People from Downe
1848 births
1925 deaths
Burials in Cambridgeshire
Presidents of the British Science Association