Thurrock Memories: Alfred Russell Wallace

DOWN Memory Lane looks back 150 years to the day on which one of the greatest discoveries in the history of science - the theory of evolution by natural selection - was first made public.

John Webb, a local historian and member of the Thurrock Local History Society has researched this subject and kindly supplied the following historical notes.

On the 1st July 1858 the Linnean Society of London published two short essays on the subject, one by Darwin, the other by the younger naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, who later moved to become a resident of Grays!

The idea is often credited solely to Charles Darwin and his book The Origin of Species, but Wallace had discovered the theory independently whilst collecting specimens in the islands of the South Pacific Ocean.

Wallace had travelled widely in South America and in Malaya and many islands in the Pacific Ocean which are now Indonesia. He noted the differing development of plant and animal life on islands separated by wide areas of ocean and wrote to Darwin and other eminent scientists, setting out his conclusions on the theory of evolution by natural selection.

Darwin was not ready to publish but agreed that Wallace's work and some notes of his own should be published together.

It is difficult to imagine the impact at the time on a general public many of whom still believed that every species had been created during a single week in 4004 BC.

Many have heard of Darwin but Wallace's name is not so familiar but should be better known in Thurrock because, after he was married, he built his first home here in 1872.

Wallace chose Grays because he hoped to be appointed the director of a proposed Natural History Museum.

He acquired four acres of land including an old chalk pit, which he thought was a bit if a wilderness that could be made into a splendid imitation of a Welsh valley!

Unusually the house was built of concrete because Wallace had seen that there was a deep bed of gravel on his ground and there were large cement works at Grays.

He anticipated that Grays would be his home for the rest of his life but the proposed museum failed to materialise and he and his family moved away after living there for 4 years (because the train service to London was limited).

His house was called The Dell and still stands and is now the private home of the Sisters of the Convent of the La Sainte Union des Sacres Coeurs in College Avenue.

A Thurrock Heritage Plaque organised by Thurrock Museum was placed on the house and unveiled in 2002 by Wallace's grandson.

History feed back:

There are a few other concrete houses in Thurrock. I would be glad to hear from anyone who lives in or knows of one.

History fact of the week:

July 6, 1907: Mark Twain says that "the Tilbury Stevedores are men that build civilisation and with out them no civilisation can be built" in a speech to The Savage Club, London.