George Howard Darwin (1845-1912) was the fifth child of Charles and Emma Darwin. He studied at Cambridge, forming friendships with the Balfour brothers, J. W. Strutt (Lord Rayleigh), and studying with E. J. Routh. In 1876 he read his first scientific paper - ‘On the invluence of geological changes on the earth’s axis of rotation’ - to the Royal Society, drawing him to the attention of William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), with whom he formed a lifelong friendship. He subsequently wrote on the geophysical history of the earth, tides, being elected to the Royal Society in 1879, and becoming Plumian Professor of astronomy and experimental philosophy at Cambridge in 1883. He married Maud du Puy in 1884, and moved to Newnham Grange (which later became Darwin College). This edition of his Scientific Papers began to appear in 1907, but at his death in 1912 a final Supplemtary Volume (volume V) was commissioned; this included a memoir of him by his brother Sir Francis Darwin, an account of his scientific work by E. W. Brown, and a frontispiece portrait by his daughter, Gwen Raverat.