Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English 
naturalist whose revolutionary theory laid the foundation for both the 
modern theory of evolution and the principle of common descent by 
proposing natural selection as a mechanism. He published this proposal 
in 1859 in the book The Origin of Species, which remains his most 
famous work. A worldwide sea voyage aboard HMS Beagle and observations 
on the Galapagos Islands in particular provided inspiration and much of 
the data on which he based his theory.

Early life

Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, on 12 February 
1809 at the family home, The Mount House. He was the fifth of six children of 
Robert and Susannah Darwin (née Wedgwood), and the grandson of Erasmus 
Darwin, and of Josiah Wedgwood, a family of the Unitarian church. See also 
Darwin–Wedgwood family.

His mother died when he was only eight and the next year he became a boarder 
at the Shrewsbury School. After finishing school, Darwin went to Edinburgh 
University in 1825 to study medicine.

At Edinburgh his disgust at the anatomy lectures of professor Alexander Munro 
III and his revulsion at the brutality of surgery at the time led him to 
neglect his medical studies, but in his second year he became active in student 
societies for naturalists. In the Plinian society he became an avid student of 
Robert Edmund Grant, learning from Grant's enthusiasm for the theories of 
Lamarck and Charles' grandfather Erasmus about evolution by acquired 
characteristics. He joined Grant in pioneering investigations of the life 
cycle of marine animals on the shores of the Firth of Forth where Grant found 
evidence for homology, the radical theory that all animals had similar organs 
differing only in complexity. In March 1827 Darwin made a presentation to the 
Plinian society of his discovery that black spores often found in oyster shells 
were the eggs of a skate leech. Darwin also sat Robert Jameson's natural history 
course, learning about stratigraphic geology and getting to assist with the 
collections of the Museum of Edinburgh University, then one of the largest in 
Europe. At professor Robert Jameson's Wernerian Natural History Association 
Charles saw John James Audubon give a demonstration of his method of using 
wires to prop up birds to draw or paint them in natural positions.

His father, unhappy that his younger son would not become a physician and 
fearing that Charles would become a "ne'er do well", enrolled him at Christ's 
College, Cambridge in 1827 on a BA course to qualify as a clergyman. This was 
a sensible career move at a time when a "living" as an Anglican parson 
provided a comfortable income and when most naturalists in England were 
clergymen who saw it as part of their duties to explore the wonders of 
God's creation.

At Cambridge Charles preferred riding and shooting to studying, and along 
with his cousin William Darwin Fox became engrossed in the current craze for 
the (competitive) collecting of beetles. Fox introduced him for advice on 
this to the Revd. John Stevens Henslow, professor of botany, and Charles 
subsequently joined his natural history course. Henslow's outings were 
attended by 78 men including the Revd. William Whewell and Charles became 
the 'favourite pupil', known as "the man who walks with Henslow". When 
exams loomed Charles focused on his studies, becoming particularly enthused 
by the set texts by Paley which included the argument of divine design in 
nature. He got private tuition from Henslow whose subjects were maths and 
theology, and in his finals in January 1831 he shone in theology and 
scraped through in classics, maths and physics, coming 10th out of a 
pass list of 178.

Although he had gained his degree, residence requirements kept Darwin at 
Cambridge till June and following Henslow's example and advice he was in 
no rush to take holy orders. Inspired by Alexander von Humboldt's Personal 
Narrative he wanted to study natural history in the tropics and planned to 
visit Madeira with some class-mates upon graduation. Knowing the need for 
geological skills, Henslow introduced Charles to the great geologist the 
Revd. Adam Sedgwick and Darwin joined his course, then that summer worked 
with him at mapping strata in Wales.

Darwin was surveying strata in Wales on his own when he received a message that his 
intended companion had died, dashing his plans to visit Madeira, but on his return 
home he received another letter. Henslow had recommended Darwin for the position of 
gentleman's companion to Robert FitzRoy, the captain of HMS Beagle which was 
departing in December on a two-year expedition to chart the coastline of South 
America and would give him opportunities as a naturalist. His father objected to 
the voyage, thinking it a waste of his son's time, but was eventually persuaded by 
Josiah Wedgwood to agree to Charles going and to pay for his son's expedition which 
eventually stretched to five years.