
John Lamont - Inverey, Aberdeenshire, UK.
Posted by:
creg-ny-baa
N 56° 59.113 W 003° 29.950
30V E 469664 N 6315851
Granite monument commemorating locally born John Lamont, Scottish-German astronomer, who as Johann von Lamont became the Astronomer Royal of Bavaria.
Waymark Code: WM11FZZ
Location: Northern Scotland, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 10/17/2019
Views: 1
This memorial can be found at the hamlet of Inverey, four miles west of Braemar in the Highlands of Scotland. It commemorates John Lamont who was born nearby at Corriemulzie.
John Lamont was born on December 13th 1805, and was educated locally until in 1817, after the death of his father, he was sent to St.James Monastery in Ratisbon, Germany. He began to work in astronomy and eventually became Professor of Astronomy at Munich University in 1852. Among his most important work was the magnetism of the Earth, and calculating the orbits of the moons of Uranus and Saturn. Having Germanised his name to Johann von Lamont, in 1864 he was awarded the Merit Order of the Bavarian Crown by the King of Bavaria. He died on August 6th 1879 and was buried near Munich.
In 1934 the Deeside Field Club erected a granite memorial in the style of a cairn at Inverey which was unveiled by Sir James Jeans. The north face contains the following inscription:
'THIS STONE COMMEMORATES JOHN LAMONT
1805-1879
WHO WAS BORN AT CORRIEMULZIE
HIS NAME IS WRITTEN IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE AS
JOHANN VON LAMONT
ASTRONOMER ROYAL OF BAVARIA'
On the opposite (south) side is inscribed the following:
'DAY UNTO DAY UTTERETH SPEECH AND NIGHT UNTO NIGHT SHEWETH KNOWLEDGE'
The monument lies on the southern side of the road that runs westwards from Braemar to the Linn of Dee, and is a few yards east of a car parking area.