"Alfred Russel Wallace was a most famous naturalist and zoologist. He arrived by a flash of genius at the same conclusions which Darwin had reached after sixteen years of most minute toil and careful observation.... It was a unique example of the almost exact concurrence of two great minds working upon the same subject, though in different parts of the world, without collusion and without rivalry.... Between Darwin and Wallace goodwill and friendship were never interrupted. Wallace's life was spent in the pursuit of various objects of intellectual and philosophical interest, over which I need not here linger. All will agree that it is fitting his medallion should be placed next to that of Darwin, with whose great name his own will ever be linked in the worlds of thought and science.
"All will acknowledge the propriety of these three great names being honoured in this Abbey Church, even though it be, to use Wordsworth's phrase, already
'Filled with mementoes, satiate with its part
Of grateful England's overflowing dead.'
"These are three men whose lifework it was to utilise and promote scientific discovery for the preservation and betterment of the human race."