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3 unusual facts about Francis Darwin


Francis Darwin

The whereabouts of the grave or cremated remains of his second wife, Ellen Wordsworth Darwin, née Crofts, a Fellow and lecturer at Newnham College is not yet known, but his third wife Lady Florence Henrietta Darwin, previously the widow of Frederick William Maitland, née Fisher, is interred in the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground, Cambridge, opposite the grave of Sir Francis Darwin and his daughter Frances Cornford.

He then went to study medicine at St George's Medical School, London, earning an MB in 1875, but did not practice medicine.

His third wife was Florence Henrietta Fisher, daughter of Herbert William Fisher and widow of Frederic William Maitland, whom he married in 1913, the year in which he was knighted.


Conduit Head

The house was built in 1910 as a wedding gift from Francis Darwin (3rd son of Charles Darwin and Emma) to his daughter, Frances Crofts Darwin, for her marriage to Francis Cornford.

Correspondence of Charles Darwin

In 1887, five years after Darwin's death, Darwin's son Francis Darwin published The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin in three volumes, to accompany the publication of The Autobiography of Charles Darwin.

Edmund Fisher

His siblings included: H. A. L. Fisher, historian and Minister of Education; Admiral Sir William Wordsworth Fisher, Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet; Florence Henrietta, Lady Darwin, playwright and wife of Sir Francis Darwin (son of Charles Darwin); and Adeline Vaughan Williams, wife of English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Horace Darwin

He is buried at the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge with his wife, Lady Ida Darwin; his brother Sir Francis Darwin is interred in the same graveyard.


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