Lives of the First World War

Erasmus Darwin MA (7 December 1881 - 24 April 1915), grandson of the naturalist Charles Darwin, was an English businessman and soldier, killed in the First World War.Darwin was born in The Orchard, Cambridge, the son of Horace Darwin and his wife Ida (née Farrer), daughter of Thomas Farrer, 1st Baron Farrer. Erasmus was Charles and Emma Darwin's second grandson. He was admitted to and Trinity College, Cambridge he was awarded a BA degree in 1904 and an MA in 1910. After graduating, he worked for Mather and Platt in Manchester, and later for Bolckow and Vaughan in Middlesbrough, where he became Company Secretary. He was also a director of the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company. Darwin was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the 4th Battalion of the Green Howards (Alexandra Princess of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regiment), a Territorial Army infantry unit, in September 1914. He was shot and killed on 24 April during the Battle of St Julien, part of Second Battle of Ypres.