Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882-1944). Born in Kendal,
England. Studied mathematics at Owens College, Manchester and
Trinity College, Cambridge. After some work in physics, moved into
astronomy in 1905 and was appointed to the Royal Observatory at
Greenwich. From 1914 director of the Cambridge Observatory. Fellow
of the Royal Society. As a Quaker he became a conscientious
objector to military service during the First World War. Eddington
made important contributions to general relativity and astrophysics
(internal structure of stars). In 1918, he led an eclipse
expedition from which the first indications resulted that
Einstein’s general relativity theory was correct. Wrote also on
epistemology and the philosophy of science.