Shortly before the publication of Darwin's The Origin of Species (1859) Sir Richard Owen wa by far the mo t eminent biologist in Britain, mentioned in the ame breath as Newton and Faraday. By this time he had received three gold medals from the Royal Society, of which he had been a member for many years, wa an honorary member of most European Academies, had been knighted, had received honorary doctorates from Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh and many Continental universitie , had a grace and favour

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... hou e in Regent's Park and a Civil Li t pension. Altogether he had received the unprecedented total of over one hundred honours. Yet today he is almost forgotten and his only memorial in hi home town of Lanca ter is a small figure on the bronze plaque of scientists on the Victoria memorial in Dalton Square.