George Gabriel Stokes

In the north choir aisle of Westminster Abbey is a bronze roundel by Sir Hamo Thorneycroft to the memory of George Gabriel Stokes, physicist and mathematician. This shows a life-size bust in the round and the inscription reads:

GEORGE GABRIEL STOKES 1819-1903

George was born on 13th August 1819 in Skreen, co. Sligo in Ireland, a son of Gabriel and Elizabeth. He was educated in Dublin, Bristol and Cambridge. Like Sir Isaac Newton Stokes became Lucasian Professor of Mathematics and Member of Parliament for Cambridge University. He was President of the Royal Society from 1885-1890. In 1889 he was created a baronet. Amongst other topics George wrote papers on optics, on the wave theory of light and the science of hydrodynamics. In 1857 he married Mary Susanna Robinson. They had five children but three died young.