George William Kinman - Alfred Russel Wallace

Alfred Russel Wallace

Alfred Russel Wallace also attended the Hertford Grammar School until he was withdrawn in 1836 after financial difficulties in his family. In 1910 George William Kinman wrote a short biography on Wallace entitled A Great Hertfordian in which he placed Wallace on the English Olympic team, "if Olympic contests were of an intellectual character."
Two letters from Headmaster George Kinman to Wallace's son William, are kept in the Natural History Museum

The first, dated 19 July 1916, reads,

I shall be very glad indeed to have the pictures mentioned in your letter, whether Dr Wallace painted them himself or not. Perhaps you will kindly inform me as to this.

On the back of the letter William wrote "Two large paintings on canvas & rollers representing scenes in the Malay Archipelago which A.R.W. had done to illustrate lectures."
The second letter from Kinman to William is dated 2 October 1916 and says,

I feel sure you will excuse my long delay in acknowledging the receipt of the pictures.....From your letter I did not think that the pictures were quite such an acquisition as they are. I am hanging them in one of the new class rooms which we intend to fit up as a Geography room - The colours of the walls shows them off admirably and apart from the interest of the subjects they appear to me of considerable artistic value.