Record

Authorised form of nameDarwin; Sir; Horace (1851 - 1928); civil engineer and manufacturer of scientific instruments
Dates1851 - 1928
NationalityBritish
Place of birthDown House, Down, Kent, England
Date of birth13 May 1851
Place of deathThe Orchard, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge, England
Date of death22/09/1928
Dates and placesBurial:
St Giles' cemetery, now Ascension Cemetery, Cambridge, England
OccupationScientific Instrument maker
Research fieldEngineering
ActivityEducation:
Clapham grammar school; MA (Cantab)
Career:
Served a three-year apprenticeship with Easton and Anderson, engineers, of Erith, Kent, returning to Cambridge upon its completion; consulting engineer on land reclamation and drainage schemes; founded the ‘Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company’ in partnership with Albert Dew-Smith (1881); took sole control of the company (1891); moved to larger premises due to due increasing demand for scientific instruments by researchers in the University laboratories becoming a Limited Liability Company (1895); the company assisted the war effort by undertaking work for the Ministry of Munitions (1914-1918).
Honours:
KBE 1918
Memberships:
Institution of Civil Engineers 1877
Institution of Mechanical Engineers 1878
Membership categoryFellow
Date of election11/06/1903
Age at election52
ProposerJohn Newport Langley; Walter Holbrook Gaskell; Ernest Howard Griffiths; William Napier Shaw; Richard Tetley Glazebrook; Francis Henry Neville; Charles Thomas Heycock; Henry Woodward; Henry Selby Hele-Shaw; Silvanus Phillips Thompson; David Gill
Charles Vernon Boys; John Perry; William de Wiveleslie Abney; George Forbes; John Milne; Raphael Meldola; John William Strutt; William Edward Ayrton; Shelford Bidwell; James Alfred Ewing; George Howard Darwin
RelationshipsParents: Charles Robert Darwin (FRS 1839) and Emma (1808–1896), daughter of Josiah Wedgwood.
Grandfather: Robert Waring Darwin (FRS 1788)
Great grandfather: Erasmus Darwin (FRS 1761)
Siblings: George Howard Darwin (FRS 1879) and Francis Darwin (FRS 1882)
Spouse: Hon. Emma Cecilia (Ida) (1854-1946), daughter of Thomas Henry Farrer, first Baron Farrer (1880).
Children: Erasmus Darwin IV (killed in WWI in 1915); Ruth Frances Darwin; Nora Barlow.
General contextRemembered for his precision in designing and manufacturing scientific instruments.
He was mayor of Cambridge between 1896 and 1897.
SourcesSources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB
Obituaries:
Proc Roy Soc Series A 1929 vol 122 pp xv-xviii, plate, signed by R T G
References:
Meg Weston Smith, 'E A Milne and the Creation of Air Defence: Some Letters From an Unprincipled Brigand, 1916-1919' in NR 1990 vol 44 pp 241-255
James R Moore, 'On the Education of Darwin's Sons: The Correspondence Between Charles Darwin and the Reverend G V Reed, 1857-1864' in NR 1977-8 vol 32 pp 51-70
Virtual International Authority Filehttp://viaf.org/viaf/62346547
Royal Society codeNA10516
Archives associated with this Fellow
Reference numberTitleDate
MC/31/37Letter from Horace Darwin, The Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company, Limited, Cambridge, England, to Dr [Arthur] Schuster, Royal Society, Burlington House, London27 May 1916
MC/33/42Letter from Horace Darwin, Air Inventions Committee, 2 Clements Inn, Strand, W.C.2., to Mr [Robert] Harrison, Assistant Secretary, Royal Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly, W17 January 1918
MC/22Volume 22 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society1907
MC/34/47Letter from Horace Darwin, The Orchard, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge, to The Assistant Secretary, Burlington House, London, W3 November 1919
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