South Central

Blue Plaques

One of the goals of the South Central Branch is to promote the public awareness of the contributions that have been made in the past by Physicists living in our area. To this end, we liaise with various bodies to raise "blue plaques" in commemoration of past Physicists. Among the distinguished scientists honoured recently were:

	Daphne Jackson - Britain's first female Professor of Physics. She was Head of the Physics Department at the University of Surrey.
	John Logie Baird - The first to demonstrate moving television pictures
	Sir Richard Riet Woolley - Eleventh Astronomer Royal

Three future Blue Plaque unveilings are under current investigation by the Branch Committee. Those to Kater and Faraday are likely to come to fruition next year while that to James Jeans is expected to be unveiled in September 2000. Sir James Jeans OM, FRS, physicist, astronomer and popularizer of science, lived at Cleveland Lodge, Westhumble near Dorking Surrey from 1918 to his death in 1946. His second wife Lady Susi Jeans, organist and musicologist, bequeathed the house to the Royal School of Church Music on her death. It is planned that blue plaques to both husband and wife be unveiled in a joint ceremony in September. Captain Henry Kater FRS is best remembered for the design of an accurate pendulum for measuring the acceleration due to gravity. He is buried in st Mary - in - the - Castle, Hastings together with his wife and daughter. Michael Faraday was a frequent visitor to Brighton and the first description of his theory of electro-magnetic induction was written at a house on the site of the present Brighton Centre, the venue for the Institute's Congress.

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