Final Years and Death of Alfred Russel Wallace. 100 Years Later

Abstract

This paper introduces us to the great naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, and his time in Sarawak. It was here in Sarawak that Wallace achieved so much, and laid the foundation for the idea of natural selection. He lived to the great age of 90 years, continually writing up to the time of his death. His funeral and grave in the south of England are briefly described. But it is the writings of some of his visitors in his last few years that give us a true picture of the man with his overwhelming love of all things in the natural world. One of Wallace’s visitors at this time was from Australia. He was my great uncle, who as a young man came to see his famous uncle towards the end of his life. My great grandfather was Wallace’s cousin. Many of Wallace’s ideas were controversial and none more so than his views on health and disease. He also believed in the existence of an ‘all powerful being’ or a Divine power in the universe to explain the wonder and mystery of life. Late in life Wallace received the acclaim he well deserved, receiving many public honours, which he received somewhat reluctantly, preferring to lead a quiet life at home. It is fitting we celebrate here in Sarawak the life of this much overlooked co-discoverer of the theory of evolution.