Humphry Davy

Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet PRS MRIA FGS was a Cornish chemist and inventor, who is best remembered today for his discoveries of several alkali and alkaline earth metals, as well as contributions to the discoveries of the elemental nature of chlorine and iodine. Berzelius called Davys 1806 Bakerian Lecture On Some Chemical Agencies of Electricity one of the best memoirs which has ever enriched the theory of chemistry. He was a Baronet, President of the Royal Society , Member of the Royal Irish Academy , and Fellow of the Geological Society .

Davy was born in Penzance in Cornwall onDecember 1778. His family moved to Varfell, near Ludgvan, when he was nine, and in termtime Davy boarded with John Tonkin, his mothers godfather. After the Penzance school he attended Truro Grammar School in 1793 to finish his education under the Rev Dr Cardew, who, in a letter to Davies Gilbert, said dryly I could not discern the faculties by which he was afterwards so much distinguished. Davy said I consider it fortunate I was left much to myself as a child, and put upon no particular plan of study... What I am I made myself.

Source: Wikipedia