Charles Darwin:

Laid the foundations of biology

If you have heard about the theory of evolution and the theory of natural selection, you are sure to know about Charles Darwin. He was the 'father' of these theories, which are generally accepted as the foundations of biology.

The English naturalist, Charles Robert Darwin was born in Shrewsbury in Shropshire, England on February 12, 1809. He was the fifth of six children of wealthy society doctor and financier Robert Darwin, and Susannah.

Although Charles was baptised in the Anglican Church, he and his siblings attended the Unitarian Chapel with their mother, and in 1817 joined the day school run by its preacher. In July 1817, when Charles was eight years old, his mother died. From September 1818, he attended the nearby Anglican Shrewsbury School.

In 1825, he went to the University of Edinburgh, Scotland to study medicine, but was taken aback by the procedures of surgery and neglected his medical studies.

In Darwin's second year, he joined the Plinian Society, a student group interested in natural history and started studying subjects related to evolution and biology.

In 1827, his father, unhappy at Darwin's lack of progress, enrolled him in a Bachelor of Arts course at Christ's College, Cambridge to qualify as a clergyman. He did his finals in 1831 and performed well in theology, though just scraping through in classics, mathematics and physics.

It was around this time that he was recommended for the voyage on the ship, HMS Beagle, which was to leave on an expedition to South America. Although his father initially objected to the two-year voyage, he was later persuaded to let Charles go, by a relative.

During the five-year Beagle survey, Darwin carefully noted a variety of geological features, and collected many fossils and living organisms, some completely new to science. He sent some of these specimens to Cambridge together with letters about his findings; these cemented his reputation as a naturalist. He made many geological discoveries too during this expedition.

Darwin's compositions sent from the Beagle had by now been seen by many reputed naturalists that, when the Beagle returned on October 2, 1836, he had become a celebrity in scientific circles. His father organised investments so that he could work as a self-funded scientist.

Darwin continued with his scientific work and writing, but fell ill under the strain of overwork. In September 1837, he had "palpitations of the heart" and was advised by his doctor to rest. Thus he went back to Shrewsbury to visit his relatives and during this visit, became interested in the role of earthworms in soil formation, which later became another one of his pet topics.

Around this time, he was pushed to take on the duties of Secretary of the Geological Society. Although he declined this extra work initially, he accepted the post in March 1838. The strain took its toll, and he started suffering from stomach problems, headaches and heart symptoms. For the rest of his life, he suffered from various illnesses.

On January 24, 1839, Darwin was honoured by being elected as Fellow of the Royal Society and on January 29, 1839, he married his cousin Emma Wedgwood. The Darwins had ten children: two died in infancy, and his daughter Annie died at the age of ten.

Most of the other surviving children went on to have distinguished careers as notable members of the prominent Darwin-Wedgwood family. Darwin's eight years of work on barnacles (Cirripedia) earned him the Royal Society's Royal Medal in 1853, and made his reputation as a biologist.

In 1859, his The Origin of Species was published, earning him a lot of praise and criticism too. It generated many public debates; although Darwin's illness kept him away from these debates, he read eagerly about them and raised further support through correspondence.

Darwin's friends formed The X Club and helped to gain him the honour of the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1864. The Origin of Species was translated into many languages and went through numerous reprints, becoming a staple scientific text and a popular reading material.

Despite regular illness during the last 22 years of his life, Darwin continued with his work. His experiments, research and writing went on.

The question of human evolution had been taken up by his supporters shortly after the publication of The Origin of Species, but Darwin's own contribution to the subject came more than ten years later with the two-volume The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex published in 1871.

A year later, Darwin published his last major work, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, which focused on the evolution of human psychology and its continuity with the behaviour of animals.

He died in Downe in Kent, England, on April 19, 1882. He had expected to be buried in St Mary's Churchyard at Downe, but a state funeral was arranged for him and he was buried in Westminster Abbey, close to John Herschel and Isaac Newton.

Darwin has been honoured, with many species and geographical features being given his name. The city named Darwin, Port Darwin, Charles Darwin University and Charles Darwin National Park (all in Australia), Darwin College in Cambridge, the 14 species of finches he had collected in the Galapagos Islands and which are affectionately named "Darwin's Finches" are some of these.

In 1992, Darwin was ranked No. 16 on Michael H. Hart's list of the most influential figures in history. He came fourth in the 100 Greatest Britons poll sponsored by the BBC and voted for by the public. In 2000 Darwin's image appeared on the Bank of England ten pound note.

The fact that evolution occurs became accepted by the scientific community and the public in his lifetime, while his theory of natural selection came to be widely seen as the primary explanation of the process of evolution in the 1930s and now forms the basis of modern evolutionary theory, are more of the major honours bestowed on him.