'Tired of medals': new letters reveal how Alfred Russel Wallace shunned Darwin's fame

From declining royal honour to refusing to sit for a portrait, correspondences show co-discoverer of evolutionary theory avoiding publicity

Darwin's name is eternally linked to one of the most momentous scientific breakthroughs of all time, while his co-discoverer, Alfred Russel Wallace, who first coined the phrase "origin of species", has been largely forgotten.

Now a newly revealed archive of Wallace's letters provides a remarkable insight into how he came to be the underdog of evolutionary theory.