WCP6169

Letter (WCP6169.7144)

[1]1

Wykeham House:

Oxford.

May 3 : 1921.

Dear Mr Wallace2,

I returned from Paris last night & so have only just seen your letter. I think it possible that you do not fully understand the situation. I am sure there is nothing derogatory in accepting such help any more than in doing so from the civil list3 itself. It is really a distinction & a recognition of your father’s work. Benefactors have given a fund4 to the Roy[al]. Soc[iety].5 to help distinguished people & their families if they need it — not necessarily Fellows but especially fellows. The Fund is not [2] sufficient to provide pensions but it can give sums to help in temporary difficulties. I can see no essential differences between this and the Civil List: if in fact the Prime Minister in considering the list submits the scientific applications to the R[oyal]. S[ociety]. C[ommitt]ee. which administers the Fund for their opinion.

Why should you therefore incur any anxiety in about this surgeon’s fee6 when the Royal Soc[iet]y C[ommitt]ee. is most willing to helping just such a difficulty? They have at once accepted [1 word illeg. struck through] my suggestion & they wish to allow me to act on their behalf. So too about the Pension: [3]7Surely you will not object to my friendly pointing out that the sum, altho[ugh].

nominally the same, is not of the same value as it was 6 years ago? The original decision was only arrived at after some application by friends: indeed it can hardly be done in any other way for any friends know the circumstances.

Well, I hope you will see that these wishes to help are not quite the sort of thing you had in mind.

[4]

With kindest regards, | Yours sincerely, | E. B. Poulton8 [signature]

[The following calculation appears in pencil at the foot of the page, probably in the hand of the recipient]

14

33

442

1212

£3110

The page is numbered W16/1/110 [1 of 3] in pencil in the top LH corner.
Wallace, William Greenell (1871-1951) Electrical engineer, second son and third child of ARW.
Civil List pensions are traditionally granted by the Sovereign upon the recommendation of the First Lord of the Treasury (Prime Minister) to "such persons only as have just claims on the royal beneficence or who by their personal services to the Crown, or by the performance of duties to the public, or by their useful discoveries in science and attainments in literature and the arts, have merited the gracious consideration of their sovereign and the gratitude of their country." It appears that William Greenell Wallace was still receiving the pension paid to his father.
Fund set up in 1859 at the instigation of John Peter Gassiot "for assisting scientific men or their families when in need of money".
A learned society for Science founded in November 1660 and granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II. ARW was made a Fellow in 1893.
The fee relates to treatment for an undisclosed illness of the recipient’s wife (see WCP6168).
The page is numbered W16/1/110 [2 of 3] in pencil in the top LH corner and the numeral 2, encircled in ink is written in the centre top of the page in the author’s hand.
Poulton, Edward Bagnall (1856-1943) British evolutionary biologist, friend of ARW and lifelong advocate of natural selection. He did pioneering work on warning or protective colouration in animals and became Hope Professor of Zoology at the University of Oxford in 1893.

Envelope (WCP6169.7145)

Envelope addressed to "W. G. Wallace Esqre, Doveshill Cottage, Ensbury Mount, Bournemouth", with stamp, postmarked "OXFORD | [?] PM | 3 MAY 21"; additional postmark on front. [Envelope (WCP6169.7145)]

Please cite as “WCP6169,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 28 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP6169