To Down School Board   16 November 1874

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.

To the Chairman & Committee | of the Down School.

Gentlemen

At the next election I beg permission to resign my seat on the school-board, as the state of my health prevents my attendance; & I am unwilling to take the place of a more useful man in this important duty1

Gentlemen | Your obedient servant | Ch. R. Darwin

Nov. 16th 1874.—

1
In December 1873, ill health had prevented CD from attending the board to argue in person for the use of the schoolroom as a winter reading room for the villagers of Down (see Correspondence vol. 21, letter to Down School Board, 19 December 1873).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9720,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9720