Nobel prize-winning atomic physicist Ernest Rutherford, born in Nelson, was raised to a hereditary British peerage in 1931. New Zealand does not have peerages, baronetcies or any hereditary titles, but New Zealanders can inherit these through their families or, rarely - as in Rutherford's case – be granted these directly from the queen. Lord Rutherford included in his coat of arms, shown here, a kiwi, a Māori warrior (right), Hermes Trismegistus (left), the author of ancient texts related to knowledge and alchemy, and, quartering the shield, the curves of radioactive growth and decay. The motto is from Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius: ‘Primordia quaerere rerum’ (to seek the first principles of things).
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Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
Photograph by Jock Phillips
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