HE was the forgotten man in the battle over natural selection, but Alfred Russel Wallace now has that most modern of accolades - his own website.

The man whose bones are buried in Broadstone Cemetery co-discovered natural selection, although his name is far from as well-known as that of Charles Darwin.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of that great evolutionary discovery of survival of the fittest, which was first announced to the world on July 1, 1858.

Dr George Beccaloni, orthoptera curator in entomology at the Natural History Museum, set up the AR Wallace Memorial Fund in 1999, which has restored the grave at Broadstone.

Wallace built a house called Old Orchard in Broadstone and lived there from 1902 until his death in 1913. His grave is marked with a seven-foot-tall fossil tree from Portland.

Dr Beccaloni, who has launched a website all about Wallace and the achievements of the naturalist, evolutionist, geographer, anthropologist and social critic and theorist, described him as "the most famous ever inhabitant of Broadstone".

In 1854 Wallace went on a collecting expedition to the Malay Archipelago, travelling 14,000 miles around what is now Malaysia and Indonesia.

During eight years he collected 8,050 bird skins, almost 110,000 insects, 7,500 shells and 410 mammals and reptiles, including 1,000 species new to science.

It was during this trip that he made his greatest scientific discovery.

Suffering from an attack of malaria on a remote island, the idea of evolution by natural selection came to him in his fever.

He wrote out his ideas and sent them to Charles Darwin, who he thought would be interested.

Darwin had in fact hit on the idea of natural selection about 20 years earlier and had been slowly gathering evidence before publishing the theory.

Darwin appealed to friends for help and they presented the work of both men to a society meeting, which published them in its journal.

Although Darwin's famous book The Origin of Species was published a year later, most people believe the theory first came from that tome.

  • To find out more about Wallace and his discoveries, log on to wallacefund.info.