100th anniversary of Charles Darwin's death in 1982

The evolution of species is driven by natural selection. Those were the famous words of Charles Robert Darwin. This scholar, who acquired enormous knowledge through self-study in the fields of biology, natural history, and geology, was born in Shrewsbury on February 12, 1809, and died on April 19, 1882, in Downe, in the county of Kent. [One_half][/one_half] [one_half]The portrait of Darwin appears in many paintings, drawings, photographs, and postcards. Such as the postcard issued by English Heritage featuring his portrait, the ship HMS Beagle, and Down House. Additionally, his portrait appears on a postcard from 1910. The portrait of Darwin was created in 1879 by the photography studio Elliott & Fry in Baker Street, London. On February 10, 1982, Royal Mail issued a series of four stamps featuring the portrait of Charles Darwin identical to the 1879 photograph. The designs were created by David Gentleman. Between 1831 and 1836, aboard the sailing ship 'The Beagle', he undertook research voyages to South America, the southern part of Africa, Australia, and a number of islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. He brought back a great deal of material from his travels that he was later able to study in England. He also sent much material back to Cambridge, England, such as fossils, stuffed animals, and plants. Due to his extensive and accurate descriptions accompanying his materials, he soon gained fame as the discoverer of new species of animals and plants. The sailing ship, HMS Beagle, was a three-masted bark. The voyage began in Devonport near Plymouth on December 27, 1831. The journey first went to South America, where he undertook several voyages from Montevideo, including to the Falkland Islands. Afterwards, they proceeded via the Strait of Magellan to the Pacific Ocean. Along the coasts of South America, he found many fossils of extinct mammal species. In 1935, he reached the Galapagos Islands and encountered the giant tortoise there, depicted on the 15½ stamp.^pHe took three young turtles to England to study them. Later, in 1841, he gave the turtles to a friend who was going to Australia. One of these turtles, named 'Harriet', lived to be 174 or 176 years old. A giant tortoise is depicted on the first-day stamp used in Shrewsbury. The 19½ stamp^p has an image of the marine iguana or sea lizard. The Latin name is Amblyrhynchus cristatus. This animal was found on the Galapagos Islands. The first description of this iguana was from 1825 and compiled by Thomas Bell. Darwin found the animal 'clumsy and disgusting'.. A sea lizard is depicted in the second Shrewsbury stamp. A sea lizard is also included in the stamp for the official Royal Mail first-day envelope. On the Galapagos Islands, in the autumn of 1835, Darwin encountered a species of finches that were related to each other but differed in beak and behavior. The finches were an important source for his theory of evolution in the form of natural selection. They are now called Darwin's finches and are depicted on the 26 stamp.^pOn the left the Cactus Ground Finch and on the right the Great Ground Finch. His fossil finds also included skulls of many animal species. Several prehistoric skulls are depicted on the 29th stamp.^p. In front of the former school in Shrewsbury on Castle Street where Charles Darwin spent his youth, now a public library, stands a bronze statue of him seated on a chair. The statue was designed by the British sculptor Horace Montford and commissioned by the Shropshire Horticultural Society and installed in 1897. Darwin married his cousin Emma Wedgwood on January 29, 1839. The ceremony took place at Maer Hall, an estate in Newcastle-under-Lyme in the county of Staffordshire. The estate was owned by Josiah Wedgewood II, the famous maker of Wedgewood earthenware and porcelain. Emma was his daughter. The upper part of the entrance gate to the manor house is depicted in the stamp impression above. On September 24, 1842, Darwin and his wife moved from London and settled in Down House, Downe, Kent, where they would remain until their deaths. Here he wrote his most important book:On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection’ which was published in 1859. His garden served, among other things, as an open-air laboratory for his experiments. Down House is now a museum and can be found near Biggin Hill, the famous airfield from World War II. Darwin died at his home in Downe on April 19, 1882, at the age of 73. He wanted to be buried in the churchyard belonging to St Mary's Church in Downe, but instead, he received a state funeral in Westminster Abbey in London. His grave is located next to the graves of other scientists such as Isaac Newton and John Herschel.