Who was the first person to receive The Copley Medal, a scientific award given by the Royal Society of London, England?

In the year 1731, the first person to be awarded The Copley Medal by the Royal Society of London, England was Stephen Gray. He received this award for the systematic experiments that he did with electrical conduction and insulation.

Gray was born in Canterbury, Kent, England in 1666. The exact date of his birth is uncertain, but records indicate that he was baptized on December 26. From his writing as an adult, Gray showed that he was a clever self-taught man. Historians noted that he was close friends with Sir Isaac Newton's rival John Flamsteed (of Denby, Derbyshire - the first Royal Astronomer). Some reviewers point out that this led to Newton (then president of the Royal Society) blocking the publishing of several of Gray's initial papers on electricity.

While Gray was a pensioner of the London Charterhouse (then an almshouse and school), he carried out, in his sixties, key experiments on electricity. He was fascinated by lights produced by rubbing a glass tube to charge it. He realized that electricity and the lights were related. The idea of an effluvium released from a tube gave way in his thoughts to ideas of something akin to gravitational attraction and electrical conduction. His work with these items is when the Royal Society of London noticed him.

While conducting his studies with electricity, he died destitute in 1736. Later, he would become known as the father of electricity.