Airy entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1819. Owing to his modest
means he paid a reduced fee but worked as a servant and took on pupils as a
private tutor. He graduated from Cambridge in 1823 and became Lucasian
Professor of Mathematics in 1826. In 1835 he became Astronomer Royal and
moved from Cambridge to Greenwich. In 1845 he became the President of
the Royal Astronomical Society, He was knighted in 1872