Francis Galton

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Francis Galton

British scientist

Also known as: Sir Francis Galton

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Mar 5, 2024 • Article History

Francis Galton

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Category: Science & Tech

Born:: February 16, 1822, near Sparkbrook, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England

Died:: January 17, 1911, Grayshott House, Haslemere, Surrey (aged 88)

Awards And Honors:: Copley Medal (1910)

Notable Works:: “Hereditary Genius”; “Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development”

Subjects Of Study:: human intelligence

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Francis Galton (born February 16, 1822, near Sparkbrook, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England—died January 17, 1911, Grayshott House, Haslemere, Surrey) was an English explorer, anthropologist, and eugenicist known for his pioneering studies of human intelligence. He was knighted in 1909. Galton’s family life was happy, and he gratefully acknowledged that he owed much to his father and mother. But he had little use for the conventional classical and religious teaching he received in school and church. Indeed, he later confessed in a letter to his cousin English naturalist Charles Darwin that the traditional biblical arguments had made him “wretched.” Galton’s parents had ...(100 of 1015 words)

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