Erasmus Darwin IV

Erasmus Darwin (7 December 1881 – 24 April 1915) was an English businessman and soldier, killed in the First World War. He was the grandson of the naturalist Charles Darwin.

Family and early life Darwin was born in The Orchard, Cambridge, the son of Horace Darwin However, Charles was unable to travel from his home at Down House in Kent to Cambridge to see his newborn grandson due to his ill health; and then Marlborough College ( in Cotton House). He was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge as an exhibitioner on 25 June 1901. He was awarded the Maths Prize in 1902. He took the Mathematical Tripos in his second year and afterwards the Engineering Tripos, coming 2nd in the class of 1905. He went on a business trip to North America with John Edward Stead. shortly after the outbreak of the war in August. After the Regular Army was basically wiped out at the end of 1914, the Territorials had to replace them. The Green Howards joined the British Expeditionary Force in Belgium and France on the Western Front as part of the Northumbrian Division, on 17 April 1915. Casualty rates in the trenches among junior officers were exceptionally high, especially amongst those without any combat experience – on average, junior officers were killed or wounded after six weeks fighting.

More details were published in the book Emma Darwin: A Century of Family Letters by his Aunt Etty.

Erasmus IV