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.