Who's Buried in Darwin's Tomb?

I know, I know – but I couldn’t resist the "cheeky" title for this entry.

Since the goal of this exercise is to visit Mr. Darwin’s home (Downe House) next year while I'm in London on business (see the first entry in this blog, “What’s this all about?”), it would be a real travesty on my part if I neglected to also visit the place where Mr. Darwin eventually ended up - since I’ll be in the neighborhood (London).

It turns out that Mr. Darwin ended up in a pretty classy place (Westminster Abby, north aisle of the Nave) and in the company of some pretty stellar scientific names like Sir Isaac Newton and Sir John Herschel.

Even though (or maybe because) the inscription on his grave is short, simple and to-the-point, a bronze memorial, with a life-sized relief bust, was erected by his family in the north choir aisle, near to the grave, in 1888. The sculptor was Sir J.E. Boehm. The inscription just simply reads “DARWIN”.

Interesting (prophetic?) footnote here – Mr. Darwin’s birthday, February 12th, is the same date as my Father’s and only two days before mine and my oldest son's.

Even though the place where Mr. Darwin ended up is pretty swank, the simplicity of his monument seems to say a lot about the man, his character and his life.