Airy, George Biddell b. July 27, 1801 d. January 2, 1892 Astronomer. He served as Great Britain's Astronomer Royal from 1835 until 1881. In 1838 he created a magnetic and meteorological department at the Greenwich Observatory in England. From 1826 to 1854 he conducted research which led him to determine the mean density of the Earth. As Astronomer Royal, he built the Airy Transit Circle, which defines the exact position of the Greenwich or Prime Meridian longitude vector. He was a Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University for forty-...[Read More] (Bio by: s.canning) St Mary Churchyard, Playford, Suffolk, England
Clarkson, Thomas b. March 28, 1760 d. September 26, 1846 Social Reformer. He was educated at Cambridge University, where in 1785 he won first prize in a Latin essay competition, "Is it right to make slaves of others against their will?" In May 1787, he was one of the twelve men who formed the Committee for Abolition of the African Slave Trade. He took on the role of fact-finder, and for the next two years rode around the country gathering evidence against the trade. His energies were not just confined to Britain. In the autumn of 1789, he went to...[Read More] (Bio by: julia&keld) St Mary Churchyard, Playford, Suffolk, England
b. July 27, 1801 d. January 2, 1892