On 19 May 1864 he married (Anne) Emma Haldane, youngest daughter of Alfred Hardcastle of Hatcham House, Surrey. She died at the birth of their second son, having borne him 4 children:
Margaret Eliza Emma Herschel (1865–1880) She had a brain tumor early on.
Emma Dorothea Herschel (1867–1954)
Reverend Sir John Charles William Herschel, 3rd Baronet (1869–1950)
Arthur Edward Hardcastle Herschel (1873–1924)
He lived at
Warfield in Berkshire and at
Littlemore in Oxfordshire.[8] Upon his death the baronetcy passed to his son.
Fingerprinting
Herschel is credited with being the first European to note the value of
fingerprints for identification. He recognized that fingerprints were unique and permanent. Herschel documented his own fingerprints over his lifetime to prove permanence. He was also credited with being the first person to use fingerprints in a practical manner. As early as 1858, working as a British officer for the
Indian Civil Service at
Jangipur in the
Bengal region of India, he started putting fingerprints on contracts.[2][9]
He worked from his late teens all the way through until 2 years before death.
A demi-terrestrial sphere Proper thereon an eagle wings elevated Or.
Escutcheon
Argent on a mount Vert a representation of the forty feet reflecting telescope with its apparatus Proper a chief Azure thereon the astronomical symbol of Uranus or the Georgium Sidus irradiated Or.
^A. Spokes Symonds, ‘Herschel, Sir William James, second baronet (1833–1917)’, rev. Katherine Prior, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
accessed 14 Nov 2013
^
abc"Michele Triplett's Fingerprint Dictionary: H" (glossary), Michele Triplett, 2006, Fprints.nwlean.net webpage:
Fprints-HArchived 16 October 2006 at the
Wayback Machine.
^Death Of Sir William Herschel. Author Of Finger-Print Identity System. (Obituaries) .He was
The Times Thursday, Oct 25, 1917; pg. 9; Issue 41618; col F
^ Sir William Herschel. (News)
The Times Saturday, Oct 27, 1917; pg. 9; Issue 41620; col E
^‘HERSCHEL, Sir William James’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007
accessed 13 Nov 2013
^"Michele Triplett's Fingerprint Dictionary: K" (glossary), Michele Triplett, 2006, Fprints.nwlean.net webpage:
Fprints-KArchived 16 October 2006 at the
Wayback Machine.