Who Was Henry Cavendish?

Henry Cavendish, despite his anglicised name, was actually born in France in 1731.  He did however, work and live in England for most of his life, until his death in 1810.
He was the first person to identify hydrogen gas, although he referred to it as inflammable air, the substance he described was actually hydrogen.
Later in his work, he established that water is produced if hydrogen and oxygen are introduced to each other ie the reaction produces water.
This directly challenged the orthodox view that water was a pure element and so was a significant breakthrough.  His theory was then backed up by the work of Antoine Lavoisier who discovered the same reaction.
Cavendish was also renowned for having devised an experiment to ascertaint he exact mass of the Earth and he worked out how to effectively calculate the forces between electric charges.
He was, apparently, a very shy and sensitive man and his work lies largely forgotten apart from those keen to learn more about science.