A DERBY-BORN philosopher who was the first to use the phrase "survival of the fittest" will be honoured with a blue plaque on a pub in the city.
Herbert Spencer, a biologist and anthropologist who also invented the precursor to the modern paper clip, will have a blue plaque placed on the Exeter Arms, in Exeter Street.
Spencer, who died in 1903 at the age of 83, was born on Exeter Street. He was a prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era and developed an all-embracing concept of evolution, writing about the subject even before Charles Darwin did.
He also contributed to a wide range of topics including ethics, religion, anthropology, economics, political theory, philosophy, literature, biology, sociology, and psychology.
During his lifetime he achieved significant recognition as a philosopher and was second only in terms of prominence to Bertrand Russell.
Spencer is best known for coining the expression "survival of the fittest" after reading Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species and is already commemorated by a plaque, among other famous Derby folk, on Exeter Bridge which was installed in 1931.
Derby City Council and Derby Civic Society have formed a partnership to start erecting blue plaques to celebrate famous people who have strong links with the city.
The plaques are put on a building or a site to mark the connection between that location and a famous person or event.
The council and Derby Civic Society asked local people to suggest who could be honoured with a Blue Plaque in the city and received a number of suggestions.
The criteria was that they needed to recognise people who had been dead for at least 20 years, had a long-lasting effect, have wide public support and had a clear link to a building or site in Derby.
This will be the tenth plaque which the council and the Civic Society have erected through the scheme.
It will be officially unveiled on Tuesday, April 8, at 11.15am at the Exeter Arms by Councillor Asaf Afzal, Derby City Council's cabinet member for planning, environment and public protection, and Alan Grimadell, chairman of the Derby Civic Society.
Also in attendance will be Martin Roper, owner of the Exeter Arms.
Mr Roper said: "I'm often stopped in my tracks when I see a blue plaque on a building in London, as I want to know who lived there. So it's fantastic that the blue plaque scheme has come to Derby and we're getting a plaque at the Exeter Arms – they're such a nationally recognised emblem.
"The pub is steeped in history and we're already proud to be associated with Herbert Spencer – our outside bar is named after him.
"When we discovered one of the old Exeter Street cottages at the back of the pub, we did think to ourselves: could Spencer have once stood where we're standing now?"
Mr Grimadell said: "Herbert Spencer was a prolific writer who was offered honours and awards all over Europe and North America.
"He was also nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature. By the 1870s he had become the most famous philosopher of the age.
"Born in Exeter Street, Derby, in 1820, he died in Brighton in 1903 and is buried in London's Highgate Cemetery.
"It's right that we should honour him in this way."
