Honoured By Monuments

The first major one to be erected was the statue in Belfast’s Botanic Gardens, dedicated in 1913 by fellow Ulster scientist, Sir Joseph Larmor MP [1], Figs 1 and 2 (left). Larmor was a most appropriate choice for guest of honour having also attended the Belfast Academical Institution in the mid-nineteenth century and been a strong opponent of Home Rule. This statue, near the rear of Queen’s University’s Department of Pure and Applied Physics, shows Kelvin standing beside a compass binnacle and holding a tablet, possibly representing his ‘green book’. The epitaph on the rear of the plinth could serve as a one sentence biography – ‘pre-eminent in elucidating the laws of nature and applying them to the service of man’.