Editing Bernard Darwin

{{short description|British golf writer and amateur golfer (1876–1961)}}
{{more citations needed|date=March 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Bernard Darwin
| image       = Bernard Darwin.jpg
| image_caption = Bernard Darwin
|birth_name   = Bernard Richard Meirion Darwin
| birth_date  = {{birth date|1876|9|7|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Downe]], [[Kent]]
| death_date  = {{death date and age|1961|8|18|1876|9|7|df=yes}}
| death_place = 
| death_cause = 
| resting_place = 
| resting_place_coordinates =
| other_names =
| education   = 
| occupation  = Writer
| spouse      = [[Elinor Darwin]]
| children    = [[Ursula Mommens]]<br />[[Robert Vere Darwin]]<br />Nicola Mary Elizabeth Darwin
| parents     = [[Francis Darwin]]<br />Amy Ruck
| relatives   = 
| signature   = 
}}
'''Bernard Richard Meirion Darwin''' [[Order of the British Empire|CBE]] [[Justice of the peace|JP]] (7 September 1876 − 18 October 1961) a grandson of the British naturalist [[Charles Darwin]], was a [[golf]] writer and high-standard [[amateur]] golfer. He was inducted into the [[World Golf Hall of Fame]].

==Biography==
Born in [[Downe]], [[Kent]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LCX3-SPN/bernard-richard-meirion-darwin-1876-1961|title=FamilySearch.org|website=ancestors.familysearch.org}}</ref> Darwin was the son of [[Francis Darwin]] and Amy Ruck, his mother dying from a fever on 11 September, four days after his birth. He was the first grandson of [[Charles Darwin|Charles]] and [[Emma Darwin]] (see [[Darwin–Wedgwood family]]), and was brought up by them at their home, [[Down House]]. His younger half-sister from his father's second marriage to [[Ellen Wordsworth Darwin|Ellen Wordswotth Crofts]] was the poet [[Frances Cornford]].
[[File:Bernard Darwin (golf) LCCN2014712856.jpg|thumb|Darwin playing golf in 1900]]
Darwin was educated at [[Eton College]], and graduated in [[law]] from [[Trinity College, Cambridge]], where he was a [[Cambridge Blue]] in [[Cambridge University Golf Club|golf]] 1895–1897, and team captain in his final year.<ref>{{acad|id=DRWN894BR|name=Darwin, Bernard Richard Meirion}}</ref>

Darwin married the engraver [[Elinor Monsell]] in 1906. They had one son, Sir [[Robert Vere Darwin]], and two daughters; the potter [[Ursula Mommens]], and Nicola Mary Elizabeth Darwin, later Hughes (1916–1976). During the [[First World War]] he served with the [[Royal Army Ordnance Corps]] in [[Macedonia (region)|Macedonia]] as a [[lieutenant]].

After Cambridge, Darwin became a court [[lawyer]], but did not particularly enjoy that career, and gradually moved into [[journalism]], despite having no formal training. He covered golf for ''[[The Times]]'' from 1907 to 1953 and for ''[[Country Life (magazine)|Country Life]]'' from 1907 to 1961, the first writer ever to cover golf on a daily basis, instead of as an occasional feature.

He played the game at an excellent level himself well into middle age, and competed in [[The Amateur Championship]] on 26 occasions across five decades between 1898 and 1935, with his best results being semi-final appearances in 1909 and 1921. In 1922, while in the United States to report on the first [[Walker Cup]] amateur team match between Britain and Ireland and the U.S., and also appointed as non-playing captain, Darwin was pressed into service at the last minute as a player, when one of the British team members, Robert Harris, was unable to play. He lost his team match, but won his singles match.

He was Captain of [[The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews]] in 1934, and was President of the [[Golf Club Managers' Association]] (then the Association of Golf Club Secretaries) from 1933 to 1934 and then again from 1955 to 1958. Though mainly a golf writer, he also occasionally wrote on [[cricket]], and prefaced the first edition of The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. He was awarded [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire|CBE]] in the [[1937 Coronation Honours]].<ref>{{London Gazette |date=11 May 1937 |supp=y |issue=34396 |pages=3089 }}</ref>

Bernard Darwin was an authority on [[Charles Dickens]]. He frequently contributed the fourth leading article in ''The Times''. The fourth Leader was devoted to flippant themes, and Darwin was known to insert quotes from or about Dickens in them. When Oxford Press issued all classics by Dickens around 1940, each with a foreword by a Dickensian scholar, Darwin was chosen to contribute the foreword to ''[[The Pickwick Papers]]''. He was also asked by ''The Times'' to pen the main tribute to cricketer [[W.G. Grace]] when Grace's birth centenary was celebrated in 1948. The article has been included since in a few anthologies.

Bernard Darwin's works were kept in print by [[Herbert Warren Wind]] through his curated Classics of Golf Library.

In 1947, Bernard Darwin wrote 'A Century of Medical Service' about the work of the GWR Medical Fund Society. The society was founded in 1847 and was being disbanded in 1947, with the arrival of the NHS. The society provided a complete medical service for the workers and their families in the [[Swindon Works|Swindon rail works]].<ref>A Century of Medical Service by Bernard Darwin {{ISBN|0 9518540 0 3}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=GWR Medical Fund Society (Swindon) |url=https://www.culhamticketoffice.co.uk/bits/welfare3.html |access-date=2024-12-01 |website=www.culhamticketoffice.co.uk}}</ref>

In 2005, Darwin was elected to the [[World Golf Hall of Fame]], in the Lifetime Achievement category.

He is buried in [[St Mary's Church, Downe|St Mary the Virgin]] Churchyard, [[Downe]], Kent.

==Amateur wins==
*1919 [[Golf Illustrated Gold Vase]]
*1896 Linskill Cup

==Results in major championships==
Note: Darwin played in only [[The Amateur Championship]].

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:95%;"
!Tournament
!1898
!1899
|-
|[[The Amateur Championship]]
|align="center"|R32
|align="center" style="background:yellow;"|R16
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:95%;"
!Tournament
!1900
!1901
!1902
!1903
!1904
!1905
!1906
!1907
!1908
!1909
|-
|[[The Amateur Championship]]
|align="center"|DNP
|align="center"|DNP
|align="center"|R32
|align="center"|R64
|align="center"|R32
|align="center"|DNP
|align="center"|DNP
|align="center"|DNP
|align="center" style="background:yellow;"|QF
|align="center" style="background:yellow;"|SF
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:95%;"
!Tournament
!1910
!1911
!1912
!1913
!1914
!1915
!1916
!1917
!1918
!1919
|-
|[[The Amateur Championship]]
|align="center"|R128
|align="center" style="background:yellow;"|R16
|align="center" style="background:yellow;"|R16
|align="center"|R128
|align="center"|R128
|align="center"|NT
|align="center"|NT
|align="center"|NT
|align="center"|NT
|align="center"|NT
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:95%;"
!Tournament
!1920
!1921
!1922
!1923
!1924
!1925
!1926
!1927
!1928
!1929
|-
|[[The Amateur Championship]]
|align="center"|R256
|align="center" style="background:yellow;"|SF
|align="center"|R64
|align="center"|R128
|align="center"|R256
|align="center"|R64
|align="center"|DNP
|align="center"|R256
|align="center"|R256
|align="center"|R64
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:95%;"
!Tournament
!1930
!1931
!1932
!1933
!1934
!1935
|-
|[[The Amateur Championship]]
|align="center"|R512
|align="center"|R32
|align="center"|R128
|align="center"|R128
|align="center"|DNP
|align="center"|R128
|}

NT = No tournament<br />
DNP = Did not play<br />
R512, R256, R128, R64, R32, R16, QF, SF = Round in which player lost in match play<br />
Yellow background for top-10<br />
Sources:<ref>:Source for 1898 British Amateur:  [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=18980526&printsec=frontpage The Glasgow Herald, 26 May 1898, pg. 11.]
:Source for 1899 British Amateur:  [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=18990525&printsec=frontpage The Glasgow Herald, 25 May 1899, pg. 8.]
:Source for 1902 British Amateur:  [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19020501&printsec=frontpage The Glasgow Herald, 1 May 1902, pg. 11.]
:Source for 1903 British Amateur:  [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19030520&printsec=frontpage The Glasgow Herald, 20 May 1903, pg. 13.]
:Source for 1904 British Amateur:  [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19040602&printsec=frontpage The Glasgow Herald, 2 June 1904, pg. 13.]
:Source for 1908 British Amateur:  [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19080529&printsec=frontpage The Glasgow Herald, 29 May 1908, pg. 14.]
:Source for 1909 British Amateur:  [https://web.archive.org/web/20120224032453/http://la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/AmericanGolfer/1912/ag83d.pdf The American Golfer, July, 1909, pg. 13.]
:Source for 1910 British Amateur:  [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19100601&printsec=frontpage The Glasgow Herald, 1 June 1910, pg. 10.]
:Source for 1911 British Amateur:  [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19110601&printsec=frontpage The Glasgow Herald, 1 June 1911, pg. 10.]
:Source for 1912 British Amateur:  [https://web.archive.org/web/20120224032453/http://la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/AmericanGolfer/1912/ag83d.pdf The American Golfer, July, 1912, pg. 199.]
:Source for 1913 British Amateur:  [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19130528&printsec=frontpage The Glasgow Herald, 28 May 1913, pg. 15.]
:Source for 1914 British Amateur:  [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19140520&printsec=frontpage The Glasgow Herald, 20 May 1914, pg. 12.]
:Source for 1920 British Amateur:  [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19200608&printsec=frontpage The Glasgow Herald, 8 June 1920, pg. 12.]
:Source for 1921 British Amateur:  [https://web.archive.org/web/20120616043413/http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/AmericanGolfer/1921/ag2411e.pdf The American Golfer, 4 June 1921, pg. 24.]
:Source for 1922 British Amateur:  [https://web.archive.org/web/20141205235942/http://www.usgamuseum.com/researchers/usga_segl/ The American Golfer, 1 July 1922, pg. 30.]
:Source for 1923 British Amateur:  [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19230509&printsec=frontpage The Glasgow Herald, 9 May 1923, pg. 13.]
:Source for 1924 British Amateur:  [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19240527&printsec=frontpage The Glasgow Herald, 27 May 1924, pg. 3.]
:Source for 1925 British Amateur:  [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19250527&printsec=frontpage The Glasgow Herald, 27 May 1925, pg. 11.]
:Source for 1927 British Amateur:  [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19270524&printsec=frontpage The Glasgow Herald, 24 May 1927, pg. 10.]
:Source for 1928 British Amateur:  [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19280522&printsec=frontpage The Glasgow Herald, 22 May 1928, pg. 4.]
:Source for 1929 British Amateur:  [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19290613&printsec=frontpage The Glasgow Herald, 13 June 1929, pg. 10.]
:Source for 1930 British Amateur:  [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19300527&printsec=frontpage The Glasgow Herald, 27 May 1930, pg. 3.]
:Source for 1931 British Amateur:  [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19310521&printsec=frontpage The Glasgow Herald, 21 May 1931, pg. 16.]
:Source for 1932 British Amateur:  [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19320526&printsec=frontpage The Glasgow Herald, 26 May 1932, pg. 17.]
:Source for 1933 British Amateur:  [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19330621&printsec=frontpage The Glasgow Herald, 21 June 1933, pg. 5.]
:Source for 1935 British Amateur:  [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19350522&printsec=frontpage The Glasgow Herald, 22 May 1935, pg. 7.]
</ref>

==Team appearances==
*[[Walker Cup]] (representing Great Britain): [[1922 Walker Cup|1922]]
*[[England–Scotland Amateur Match]] (representing England): 1902, 1904, 1905, 1908, 1909, 1910 (winners), 1923, 1924 (winners)

==List of works==
*''The Golf Courses of the British Isles'' (Duckworth, 1910) illustrated by [[Harry Rountree]]
*''Tee Shots and Others'' (Kegan Paul, 1911) illustrated by E. W. Mitchell
*''Golf from The Times'' (The Times, 1912)
*''[[Erasmus Darwin IV|Erasmus Darwin]]: Born 7 December 1881, killed in action 24 April 1915 ''
*''Golf: Some Hints and Suggestions'' (Country Life, 1920)
*''A Friendly Round'' (Mills & Boon, 1922)
*''A Round of Golf on the London & North Eastern Railway '' (Ben Johnson & Co., 1924)
*''The Tale of Mr. Tootleoo'' (Nonesuch Press, 1925) with Elinor Darwin, for children
*''The Games's Afoot! An Anthology of Sports, Games and the Open Air '' (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1926) editor
*''Eton v. Harrow at Lord's'' (Williams & Norgate, 1926) see [[Eton v Harrow]]
*''Tootleoo Two'' (Nonesuch Press, 1927) with Elinor Darwin, for children
*''Six Golfing Shots by Six Famous Players'' (Dormeuil Freres, 1927)
*''Green Memories'' (Hodder & Stoughton, 1928)
*''Second Shots: Casual Talks About Golf'' (Newnes, 1930)
*''The Dickens Advertiser: A Collection of the Advertisements in the Original Parts of Novels by Charles Dickens'' ([[Elkin Mathews]] & Marrot, 1930) 
*''Out of the Rough'' (Chapman & Hall, 1932)
*''Dickens'' (Duckworth, 1933) Great Lives series
*''W. G. Grace'' (Duckworth, 1934) Great Lives series
*''Playing the Like '' (Chapman & Hall, 1934)
*''Mr. Tootleoo and Co.'' (Faber & Faber, 1935) with Elinor Darwin, for children
*''Life is Sweet Brother'' (Collins, 1940) reminiscences
*''Pack Clouds Away'' (Collins, 1941)
*''British Clubs'' (Collins, 1943) Britain in Pictures series
*''Golf Between Two Wars'' (Chatto & Windus, 1944)
*''The Robinsons of Bristol 1844-1944'' ([[E. S. & A. Robinson]], 1945)
*''British Golf'' (Collins, 1946) Britain in Pictures series
*''Golfing By-Paths'' (Country Life, 1946)
*''Fifty Years of Country Life'' (Country Life, 1947) history of ''[[Country Life (magazine)|Country Life]]'' magazine
*''A Century of Medical Service (Great Western Railway Medical Fund Society, 1947)''
*''Every Idle Dream'' (Collins, 1948) illustrated by Elinor Darwin
*''[[James Braid (golfer)|James Braid]]'' (Hodder & Stoughton, 1952)
*''A History of Golf in Britain'' (Cassell, 1952) editor
*''The World That Fred Made'' (Chatto & Windus, 1955) autobiography
*''Golf Is My Game'' (Chatto & Windus, 1961) with [[Bobby Jones (golfer)|Bobby Jones]]

===Other publications===
*''A Round with Darwin: A Collection of the Golf Writings'' (Souvenir Press, 1984) 
*''Darwin on the Green'' (Souvenir Press, 1986)
*''Historic Golf Courses of the British Isles'' (Duckworth, 1987)
*''The Darwin Sketchbook: Portraits of Golf's Greatest Players and Other Selections'' (Classics of Golf, 1991) from his writings, 1910–1955
*''The Happy Golfer'' (Classics of Golf, 1997) his best articles from The American Golfer magazine, 1922–1936
*''Bernard Darwin on Golf'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003) edited by Jeff Silverman {{ISBN|1-58574-768-8}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
*{{Find a Grave|91954329}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20040803130351/http://www.golfonline.com/golfonline/features/history/article/0,17742,467820,00.html Profile at golfonline.com]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070829135952/http://www.hickorygolfers.com/notes.php#darwin Articles by Bernard Darwin]
*[http://www.hickorygolfers.com/dublincore/dckeyword.php?dc_searchstring=darwin SoHG Archives]{{Dead link|date=June 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
*{{Gutenberg author | id=42842| name=Bernard Darwin}}
*{{Internet Archive author |sname=Bernard Darwin}}

{{Ruck family tree}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Darwin, Bernard}}
[[Category:1876 births]]
[[Category:1961 deaths]]
[[Category:Burials in Kent]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Kent]]
[[Category:People educated at Eton College]]
[[Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:Royal Army Ordnance Corps officers]]
[[Category:English male golfers]]
[[Category:Amateur golfers]]
[[Category:Golf writers]]
[[Category:Cricket writers]]
[[Category:World Golf Hall of Fame inductees]]
[[Category:British sportswriters]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Darwin–Wedgwood family]]
[[Category:Country Life (magazine) people]]