... was born Wilhelm Friedrich Herschel in Hanover, in 1738. His father, Isaak, was an oboist in the Hanover Military Band; Wilhelm and his brother Jakob joined their father in the band as oboists. In 1755 the Hanoverian Guards regiment was ordered to England, but as the threat of war with France loomed it was recalled to defend Hanover. In late 1757, after the regiment was defeated at the Battle of Hastenbeck, Isaak sent his two sons to seek refuge in England. Jakob had received his dismissal from the Hanoverian Guards, but Wilhelm was accused of desertion. (He was pardoned by King George III in 1782.)
In 1761, Herschel moved to Sunderland and became first violinist in the orchestra of Charles Avison, a church organist in Newcastle–upon–Tyne. Herschel later became an organist in Leeds and then Halifax, and eventually Bath. His sister Caroline came to England in 1772; the house they shared in Bath is now the Herschel Museum of Astronomy. His brothers Dietrich, Alexander and Jakob also performed as musicians in Bath.
William Herschel also composed 24 symphonies and many concertos, as well as some church music.
In the course of his musical activities Herschel met the Rev. John Michell, of Thornhill, West Yorkshire. Thornhill was a former Cambridge professor – a geologist and astronomer, and an amateur violinist. Herschel started building his own telescope and developed an interest in double stars. It was while searching for these that he observed Uranus from the garden of his house in Bath.
Uranus is visible to the naked eye, but it had not previously been recognised as a planet beacuse it is so dim and appears to move so slowly. Herschel originally believed it to be a comet, but the Swedish astronomer Anders Lexell (working in Russia) computed its orbit and concluded that it was a planet, as the orbit was almost circular. Before long the new object was universally acknowledged to be a planet, and Herschel described it as such to the Royal Society in 1783.
Invited by the Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne to choose a name for his discovery, Herschel suggested 'George's Star' or 'the Georgian planet' – in honour of his new patron, King George III. This was not popular outside Great Britain however, and it was the German astronomer Johann Bode who proposed the Latinised name of the Greek god of the sky – pointing out that as Saturn was the father of Jupiter, Uranus was the father of Saturn.
Herschel married in 1788, and his only child – a son named John – was born in 1792. John Herschel became a mathematician, astronomer, chemist, and inventor, and he also experimented with photography. He originated the use of the Julian day system in astronomy, and named seven moons of Saturn and four moons of Uranus.
William Herschel died in Slough in 1822, and was buried there. Caroline Herschel – regarded by some as a bitter, jealous woman who worshipped her brother and resented her sister–in–law for invading her domestic life – returned to Hanover, and died there in 1848.
© Haydn Thompson 2018