Alfred Russel Wallace. A biographical sketch  John van Wyhe
Wallace in 1902Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) came from a
rather humble and ordinary background. His father, a solicitor
by training, once had property sufficient to generate a
gentleman's income of £500 per annum. But the family's financial
circumstances declined so the family moved from London to a
village near Usk, on the Welsh borders, where Wallace was born
in Kensington Cottage on 8 January 1823.  When Wallace was six
years old the family moved to Hertford, north of London, where
he lived until he was fourteen. Here Wallace attended Hertford
Grammar School which offered a classical education, not unlike
Charles Darwin's at Shrewsbury School, including Latin grammar,
classical geography and "some Euclid and algebra". Wallace left
school aged fourteen in March 1837, shortly after Darwin
returned from the Beagle voyage. Wallace never attended
university.  Wallace then left home to join his elder brother
John, an apprentice builder in London. W