Alfred Russel Wallace
Alfred Russel Wallace OM FRS was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural selection. His 1904 book Man’s Place in the Universe was the first serious attempt by a biologist to evaluate the likelihood of life on other planets. He was considered the 19th century’s leading expert on the geographical distribution of animal species.
About Alfred Russel Wallace in brief
Alfred Russel Wallace OM FRS was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural selection. His paper on the subject was jointly published with some of Charles Darwin’s writings in 1858. This prompted Darwin to publish On the Origin of Species. Wallace did extensive fieldwork; first in the Amazon River basin, and then in the Malay Archipelago, where he identified the faunal divide now termed the Wallace Line. He was considered the 19th century’s leading expert on the geographical distribution of animal species and is sometimes called the \”father of biogeography\”. His 1904 book Man’s Place in the Universe was the first serious attempt by a biologist to evaluate the likelihood of life on other planets. Wallace was strongly attracted to unconventional ideas and his belief in a non-material origin for the higher mental faculties of humans strained his relationship with some members of the scientific establishment. Aside from scientific work, he was a social activist who was critical of what he considered to be an unjust social and economic system in 19th-century Britain. Wallace had financial difficulties throughout much of his life. Unlike some of his contemporaries in the British scientific community, such as Darwin and Charles Lyell, he had no family wealth to fall back on, and he was unsuccessful in finding a long-term salaried position, receiving no regular income until he was awarded a small government pension, through Darwin’s efforts, in 1881.
One of the first scientists to write a serious exploration of the subject of whether there was life on Mars. His account of his adventures and observations during his explorations in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia was both popular and highly regarded. Since some sources have considered him to be Welsh, Wallace was born in Monmouthshire, some sources consider him to have been of Scottish ancestry. His family, like many Wallaces, claimed a connection to William Wallace, a leader of Scottish forces during the Wars of Scottish Independence in the 13th century. His mother was from a middle-class English family from Hertford, north of London. He attended Hertford Grammar School until financial difficulties forced his family to withdraw him in 1836 when he was aged 14. Wallace then moved to London to board with his older brother John, a 19-year-old apprentice builder. He left London in 1837 to live and work as his apprentice for six years. At the end of 1839, they moved to Kington, near the Welsh border, before eventually settling in Neath Glamorgan in Wales. Between 1840 and 1843, Wallace did land surveying work in the countryside of west of England and Wales. He died in January 1843 at the age of 20, at age of 50. He had a son, Alfred Wallace, who died in 1869 at age 55. His daughter, Mary Anne Wallace, was a writer and author who wrote on both scientific and social issues.
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