William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin
1824–1907 (age 83)
Biography
William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (1824-1907) was among the century's greatest physicists, establishing the absolute temperature scale that still bears his name and conducting foundational work on electricity, heat, and the transatlantic telegraph. His lectures in Glasgow and at Cambridge inspired engineers and scientists with their rigor and clarity.
He advised government on naval propulsion and wireless telegraphy, always marrying theory with practice; the Abbey's memorial stone marks the resting place of a scholar whose precise mind reshaped the modern world.