Darwin, Erasmus, 1881-1915 (company secretary)
Biography
Erasmus Darwin was born in Cambridge on 7 December 1881, the first child and only son of Horace Darwin (1851–1928), civil engineer and manufacturer of scientific instruments, and his wife, Emma Cecilia (Ida) (1854-1946), daughter of Thomas Henry Farrer, first Baron Farrer. Erasmus was educated at Horris Hill School near Newbury and at Marlborough College. He was admitted as an Exhibitioner at Trinity College, Cambridge to study Mathematics on 25 June 1901 and was awarded the Mathematics Prize in 1902. He took the Mathematical Tripos in his second year and afterwards the Engineering Tripos, coming 2nd in the class of 1905. He was awarded a BA degree in 1904 and an MA in 1910. After graduating he worked at Mather and Platt in Manchester, a hydraulics and pump engineering company, and around 1907 moved on to work for Bolckow, Vaughan & Co Ltd Iron and Steel in Middlesbrough, where he eventually became Company Secretary. He was also a director of the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company, the firm founded by his father. It is thought he visited Canada in October 1911 for business. As soon as war broke out he joined up and was gazetted on the 12 September 1914 as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 4th Battalion of the Green Howards (Alexandra Princess of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regiment), a Territorial Army infantry unit. Apparently, just before he left England he was summoned to the War Office and offered a Staff appointment at home in connection to munitions work. Though the work was important he opted to stay with his unit making the case that there were plenty of older men equally qualified for the work. The 4th Battalion arrived in France on the 18 April 1915 and were straight away into the 2nd Ypres offensive which started on the 22 April. The Battalion was involved in the Battle of St. Julien in the heart of the Ypres Salient. During an attack at a location called Fortuin on the 24/25 April, Erasmus was killed. His commanding office, Colonel Bell, said of him: "Loyalty, courage and devotion to duty, he had them all. He died in an attack that gained many compliments to the Battalion. He was right at the front. It was a man’s death". Erasmus has no known grave and is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Belgium.
Found in 11 Collections and/or Records:
Correspondence: Erasmus Darwin and opals, Apr. 1913-Jun 1914
Letters and related papers re purchase, valuation, disposal and sale of opals by Erasmus Darwin in 1913-1914. Includes a valuation and catalogue of the stones, and letters from Nora Barlow, Kenneth and Clive Cookson, Thomas McKenny Hughes, Frederick Stirling Newall and Margaret Newall, all of whom expressed an interest in acquiring some of the stones.
DARWIN, Erasmus, 1893-1914
Contains 40 letters sent from Erasmus Darwin to his mother and father, Ida and Horace, from 25 September 1893 to 6 March 1914, and a single letter to his sister Nora dated 18 September 1908. Almost half of the letters were sent between 1893 and 1901 when Erasmus was a pupil at first Horris Hill School, Newbury and later Marlborough College. The remainder were sent between [1906] and 1914.
Erasmus Darwin: Marlborough College & Trinity College, Dec. 1900-Jan. 1901
Erasmus, Ruth and Nora Darwin, c.1887
Single studio portrait photograph of Erasmus, Ruth and Nora Darwin as young children, and single studio portrait photographs of Ruth and Nora.
Nora Barlow Letters: 1908, 1908
Contains 35 letters from Nora to Ida Darwin sent between 5 January and [8 October] 1908. The letters provide news of family and social engagements including accounts of house parties and visits to family and friends.
Includes a single letter from Nora to Ruth Darwin, and letters to Nora from Charles Booth, Erasmus Darwin, Dora Knox and Charles Tennant regarding a May Ball.
Nora Barlow Letters: 1909, 1909
Contains 26 letters from Nora to Ida Darwin sent between 3 January and 4 December 1909. Letters sent in July contain account of a visit to Denmark.
Includes letters from Charlotte Mildred Darwin and Erasmus Darwin to Nora, a postcard from Ruth Darwin to Ida and a letter from Ethel Glazebrook to Ida.
Nora Barlow Letters: 1911, 1911
Contains 48 letters from Nora to Ida Darwin sent between 5 January and 29 December 1911. The letters include Nora's recollections of her wedding to Alan Barlow on 6 April and an account of their honeymoon in the Lake District; and an account of a visit to Hungary in July 1911.
Includes a letter from Horace Benge Dobell to Sir Thomas Barlow congratulating him on the marriage of his son Alan to Nora, and letters from Erasmus and Leonard Darwin and from Celia Newbolt to Nora.
Nora Barlow Letters: 1914, 1914
Nora Barlow Letters: 1915, 1915
Contains 49 letters from Nora to Ida Darwin sent between 1 January and 29 December 1915. Amongst news of family and social engagements, the letters make reference to Zeppelin raids on London in September and October 1915 and of work undertaken by Nora in the Chemical Department at Bedford College.
Includes letters from Isobel Addison, Alan Barlow, Erasmus Darwin and Gwen Raverat to Nora, and letters from Ella Coltman and Ruth Darwin to Ida.
Note on life of Erasmus Darwin, 19 May 1915
Printed note on life of Erasmus Darwin by Bernard Darwin published as a postscript to the book 'Emma Darwin: A Century of Family Letters 1792-1896'.