As Wilson was a Scottish scientist born in the nineteenth century, he had to have "Thomson" in his name. For variety, however, he chose to use it as a middle name. Although born in Scotland, he moved to Manchester when he was four years old. His immediate family was not well off, and his education was paid for by his businessman step-brother, William, based in Calcutta. After starting off as a medical student, he changed to physics, following a BSc at Owens College, Manchester, with a period at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. In order to support his mother after the death of his Calcutta step-brother in 1892, he took a teaching job at Bradford Grammar School, but after a short while, he returned to Cambridge, where he managed to support himself by being a demonstrator for medical students. It was at this time that Rutherford and his contemporaries started research in the department, and Wilson often took part in their discussions. He was awarded the Clerk Maxwell scholarship (less than twenty years after Maxwell had died) for three years, then went on to hold posts as demonstrator, lecturer, and finally Jacksonian professor of natural philosophy. Many honours were bestowed upon him, including FRS in 1900 and a Nobel prize shared with A. H. Compton in 1927, for their work on high-energy photon scattering.
Wilson's blue plaque is on a cairn in the hills because he was profoundly influenced by the beauty and truth of Nature. He spent much of his life walking and climbing in Scotland, and used to spend time on Ben Nevis, observing natural phenomena such as coronas, and electric storms. His invention of the cloud chamber, an invaluable piece of apparatus in the physicist's armoury, was inspired by his wish to emulate the stunning cloud formations that he witnessed whilst on the mountains; and his research into atmospheric electricity was stirred by experiencing his hair standing on end when he was once caught in a storm. This gave him a glimpse of the magnitude of the forces and fields he was investigating. His work on the conductivity of air later inspired Victor Hess, who subsequently postulated the existence of "cosmic radiation"
Page last updated 2 November 2012