Frederick Wollaston Hutton

Captain Frederick Wollaston Hutton, FRS, (16 November 1836 – 27 October 1905) was an English scientist who applied the theory of natural selection to explain the origins and nature of the natural history of New Zealand. Hutton was born in Gate Burton, Lincolnshire, England and passed through Southwell Grammar School and the Naval Academy at Gosport, Hampshire. He studied applied science at King's College London before being commissioned in the Ro... more

Captain Frederick Wollaston Hutton, FRS, (16 November 1836 – 27 October 1905) was an English scientist who applied the theory of natural selection to explain the origins and nature of the natural history of New Zealand. Hutton was born in Gate Burton, Lincolnshire, England and passed through Southwell Grammar School and the Naval Academy at Gosport, Hampshire. He studied applied science at King's College London before being commissioned in the Royal Welch Fusiliers and fighting in the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny. Hutton returned to England in 1860, and continued to study geology at Sandhurst, being elected to the Geological Society of London in the same year. In 1861, he reviewed Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species for The Geologist. Throughout his life, Hutton remained a staunch exponent of Darwin's theories of natural selection, and Darwin himself expressed his appreciation in a letter to Hutton. Hutton married Annie Gouger Montgomerie in 1863, and resigned his commission... less