Alfred Russel Wallace: Architect of Evolution

Charles Darwin was almost pipped to the post with the theory of evolution - by a neglected Victorian polymath, who also pioneered the theory of the Ice Ages and equal wages for women.

Alfred Russel Wallace was the greatest scientific explorer of the Victorian age and a formidable polymath. By the end of his life, Wallace was reckoned to be "one of the world's most recognised names." He studied everything from colour vision to the ice ages, and he used his social influence to promote greenbelts around cities, a minimum wage and raising the economic status of women.

But his main love was biology. He spent many years in Brazil and in Indonesia, collecting specimens and trying to understand the relationship between different species. While recovering from a fever on an Indonesian island, he hatched the Theory of Evolution - before Darwin had gone public.

Alfred Russel Wallace about to set out for the Amazon

Born on the borders of England and Wales in 1823, Wallace spent several years as a schoolmaster, surveyor and museum curator. Here he hit on the idea of earning a living by importing exotic natural history collections into England.

So in his mid-twenties, Wallace set out for the Amazon. For four years he explored the giant river and its tributaries, ascending the steamy Rio Negro further than any other explorer and drawing up a definitive map. He also logged many of the local languages.

Wallace knew that some radical philosophers had suggested species can change from one kind to another. In Brazil, he investigated how species are confined to certain areas, finding that the ecology of the regions influenced the kind of species living there. But he couldn't work out how species might change and diversify as time goes by.

In 1852, Wallace embarked for England with his prize collection of plants, birds and animal skins, and native artefacts. But out in the Atlantic the ship caught fire and sank. Wallace survived for ten days in a lifeboat before being picked up by a passing ship and returning to England - having lost all of unique South American specimens.