WCP2118

Letter (WCP2118.2008)

[1]1

8, BROOKSIDE,

CAMBRIDGE.

June 14th 1911

Dear Mr Wallace,

At the forthcoming Annual meeting of the British Association to be held at Portsmouth. Mr Tate Regan2 of the Natural History Museum is to read a paper and initiate a discussion on "Wallace's Line"; he is paying particular attention to the Geographical distribution of Fishes. At a recent meeting of the [2] organising committee of Section D, I (as Recorder) was instructed to write to you to say how deeply honoured the Section would feel if you could be present to take part in the discussion, and in sending you our most cordial invitation to add, that the Committee would do all in its power to make your journey and visit as easy, pleasant and comfortable [3] as possible. We would send a motor for you and to take you back, or do anything else to fall in with your wishes and comfort.

In sending you this invitation we feel that we may be making a demand on your strength, but with such arrangements as we can make we hope we may be able to spare you as much effort as possible.

Your presence would be greatly appreciated not only by our section but by the association. I think we have a mutual friend in Mr Cockerill,3 Director of the Fitzwillian Museum here and his brother Prof. J Cockerill.4

With kindest wishes | I remain | yours very sincerely | H. W. Marett Tims5 [signature]

In ARW’s handwriting, "Declined with Thanks".
Regan, Charles Tate (1878-1943). British ichthyologist. Staff and keeper, later director of the Natural History Museum, London from 1927-1938.
Cockerell, Sydney Carlyle (1867-1962). British bibliophile and collector of medieval manuscripts. Celebrated Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge 1909-1937.
Cockerell, John Thomas (1819-1907). British born Australian natural history collector, adventurer, and ornithologist.
Tims, Henry William Marett (1863-1954). Doctor of medicine and anatomist.

Please cite as “WCP2118,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2118