Stephen Hawking to be Buried Close to Darwin and Newton Tombs

The ashes of the world's most renowned scientist, Stephen Hawking, will be interred at Westminster Abbey, close to the remains of Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin.

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Hawking died at his home in Cambridge on March 14. He spent most of his time in a wheelchair due to his motor neurone disease, but that did not stop his curiosity and crave for knowledge that made him the most famous scientist of our times.

A private funeral service for Hawking will take place on March 31 at Great St. Mary's Church at the University of Cambridge, and the Westminster Abbey announced Tuesday that they will hold a Thanksgiving service later in the year, during which Hawking's ashes will be interred.

“We have decided to hold his funeral in the city that he loved so much and which loved him. Our father’s life and work meant many things to many people, both religious and non-religious,” said Hawking's children in a statement published by the Gonville & Caius University of Cambridge. “So, the service will be both inclusive and traditional, reflecting the breadth and diversity of his life.”

Hawking was a fellow professor at Gonville and Caius College for 52 years, which is close to Westminster Abbey.

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The Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr. John Hall, said: "It is entirely fitting that the remains of Professor Stephen Hawking are to be buried in the Abbey, near those of distinguished fellow scientists. Sir Isaac Newton was buried in the Abbey in 1727. Charles Darwin was buried beside Isaac Newton in 1882."

Despite controversies regarding Hawking's position on religion, Dr. John Hall added: "We believe it to be vital that science and religion work together to seek to answer the great questions of the mystery of life and of the universe."

The Westminster Abbey is the final resting place of some of the most important figures in British history, including 17 monarchs, and numerous other aristocrats, scientists and writers.

Interment inside Westminster Abbey is a rarely bestowed honor. The most recent burials of scientists there were those of Ernest Rutherford, a pioneer of nuclear physics, in 1937, and of Joseph John Thomson, who discovered electrons, in 1940.

Hawking will be buried in the church's nave along with Newton and Darwin. Other personalities buried in the complex include writers Charles Dickens and Rudyard Kipling, and composers Henry Purcell and George Frederick Handel.