HAWKING'S LAST HURRAH

The world-famous physicist and author of A Brief History Of Time was laid to rest alongside Newton and Darwin

- Andre Pattenden

"No one since Einstein has done more to deepen our knowledge of the cosmos and inspire achievement against the odds.” Those were the words Lord Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal, used to describe his friend, colleague and fellow scientist, Professor Stephen Hawking, at the latter’s memorial service in June last year. Hawking, the physicist renowned for unravelling the mysteries of black holes and his distinctive synthesised voice, was laid to rest in a special ceremony held at Westminster Abbey in London.

Before his death on 14 March 2018, aged 76, Hawking had garnered an unprecedented level of global recognition for his scientific discoveries and ability to popularise them. But his achievements were perhaps all the more notable since they came in the face of an almost lifelong struggle with motor neurone disease – a degenerative condition that robbed Hawking of his ability to walk and talk.

Often characterised as a man whose body was trapped in a wheelchair but whose mind was free to wander among the stars, his final farewell reflected the contrasting nature of Hawking’s existence. As his ashes were interred in the ground of Westminster Abbey between those of Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin, an audio recording of Hawking reading a tribute, set to music by the composer Vangelis, was beamed into space towards 1A 0620-00 – the nearest black hole to Earth.