Stephen Hawking to Join Newton and Darwin in the Grave

Stephen Hawking is going to join some of the greatest scientists of the history, when his ashes are interred inside Westminster Abbey, close to the graves of Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. This is for the first time a scientist has been afforded the honor in last 80 years.

Westminster Abbey is also the final resting place of 17 monarchs and some of the most significant personalities including some of the famous scientists in British history. Prof Stephen Hawking will be the first well known person in the recent history to be laid to rest in the Abbey since Sir Laurence Olivier in 1989. He joins the likes of Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Elizabeth I, Charles Dickens and Geoffrey Chaucer. The last scientist to be interred was the physicist Joseph John Thomson, the discoverer of the electron who died in 1940. Nuclear Scientist Sir Ernest Rutherford was buried some years back.

Declaring the rare honor to be bestowed upon the scientist, John Hall, Dean of Westminster said in a statement, “It is entirely fitting that the remains of Professor Stephen Hawking are to be buried in the Westminster Abbey, along with distinguished fellow scientists.”

Isaac Newton, who formulated the law of universal gravitation and laid the foundations of modern mathematics, was buried in the year 1727. Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution was one of the most far-reaching scientific breakthroughs of all time, was buried close to Newton in 1882. 

Stephen Hawking, the world famous physicist, who died on 14th March, at the age of 76, years after a successful lifetime spent exploring the origins of the universe, the mysteries of black holes and the nature of time itself, will join the list of magnificent British people in the list of Westminster.  

After the death of Hawking, Cambridge University in its statement described Hawking as “an inspiration to millions”. Hawking was eventually given the prestigious title of Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge a position once held by Isaac Newton, having joined the university in the year 1962 as a PhD student.

Though Stephen Hawking was a victim of the wasting motor neurone disease, a rare disease of brain paralysis, which was developed at a very young age of 21 years, but he never ceased to explore. Hawking, though was confined to a wheelchair for rest of his life but he inspired everyone by his activities and explorations.

Gradually when his physical condition began to deteriorate, he had to speak through a voice synthesizer and communicate by moving his eyebrows, but he was very much active with his work and inspiring others. He fought the disease to gain a worldwide following because of his brilliant work in theoretical physics.

Hawking is considered by many as the greatest scientist of this generation, not because of his scientific explorations but also because of the human being with sensitivity, he was.

Stephen Hawking was born in Oxford, England in the year 1942 the year, which coincidentally was the 300th death anniversary of astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei.

The most significant of his experiments was when, Stephen Hawking merged Albert Einstein's theory of relativity with quantum theory to suggest that space and time would begin with the Big Bang and end in black holes.

Though his disease bound him paralyzed using a wheelchair for mobility but his thoughts and explorations were without limit. Hawking once wrote on his website that he had tried not to let it affect the way he lived his life, “I try to lead as normal a life as possible by not bothering or thinking about my physical condition or regret the things it prevents me from doing”.

The Westminster Abbey, where his ashes are interred, is also close to Gonville and Caius College, where Prof Hawking had been a fellow for more than 50 years. This is therefore a beautiful honor to keep his memories with the place he was associated.

In the honor of Stephen Hawking, a private funeral service will take place at Great St Mary's, the University Church on 31st March. The thanksgiving service at Westminster Abbey will take place later this year, during which, his ashes would be interred, thereby making him established in the galaxy of illuminaries, forever.