CHAPTER 7: Scientists at the Heart of Westminster Abbey

In Westminster Abbey we visit memorials to and gravesites of British scientists. Following the prescribed route starting at the north transept, we find memorials to Humphry Davy, Lord Rayleigh, and Thomas Young in St. Andrew's Chapel and the one to Robert Hooke in the “crossing”. In the nave at “Science Corner”, we stand on the memorial to William Herschel and look to the roped-off altar area to view Isaac Newton's grave and magnificent monument. After noting the adjacent memorials to Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell, we have a verger take us to see where the ashes of J. J. Thomson and Ernest Rutherford are interred under the altar table. Here too we find other markers honoring Lord Kelvin, George Green, Paul Dirac and, most recently, Stephen Hawking. Outside the altar area we see the gravesites of John Herschel and Charles Darwin and then go into the North Choir Aisle to see memorials to Darwin, James Prescott Joule, Sir William Ramsay, and James Watt. Moving from one memorial or gravesite to another we briefly recall each scientist's contribution to the development of the atomic concept and the sites we have visited all over the United Kingdom.