Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/277

 with Mr. Howard Morley the Twentieth Century Club at Notting Hill for ladies earning their own livelihood, and was a generous benefactor to the North-west London Hospital at Camden Town, of which he was treasurer. In 1887 he first discussed with 'General' Booth the 'Back to the Land Scheme,' an original plan of the Salvation Army for relieving the unemployed. In 1905 he proposed to place 100,000l. in the hands of the Salvation Army for the purpose of settling poor people on neglected land in the United Kingdom, in establishing them as petty cultivators, and supporting them and their families until the land should become productive; the advance to be paid back by the settlers, and then to be given by the Salvation Army to King Edward's Hospital Fund in twenty-five annual instalments. Herring defended the scheme with eagerness when it was criticised as impracticable (The Times, 13 Feb. 1906), and it was put into operation. The sum actually received from Herring was 40,000l. under a codicil to his will. With this an estate was purchased at Boxted, Essex, comprising about fifty holdings, which was visited and approved by Herring not long before his death. The entire control of the scheme was, in accordance with a decision of the court of chancery, vested in the Salvation Army, with 'General' Booth as sole trustee (The Times, 19-20 Dec. 1907).

Herring, who lived in much retirement, and deprecated public recognition of his generosity, died on 2 Nov. 1906 at his Bedfordshire residence, Putteridge Park, Luton, after an operation for appendicitis. He also had residences at 1 Hamilton Place, Piccadilly, and Bridge House, Maidenhead. The urn containing his remains, which were cremated at Woking, was buried under the sundial at the Haven of Rest Almshouses at Maidenhead. His estate was sworn for probate at 1,371,152l. 18s. 8d. gross. After legacies to his brother William, to other relatives, friends, and charities, the residue was left to the Hospital Sunday Fund, which benefited to the extent of about 750,000l. The bequests to charities under the will reached a total of about 900,000l. (The Times, 10 May 1907).

On 15 June 1908 a marble bust of Herring, by Mr. George Wade, presented by the Metropolitan Sunday Hospital Fund as residuary legatees under his will, was placed in the Mansion House. On a brass plate beneath the bust is inscribed a letter received in 1905 by Herring from King Edward VII, who warmly commended Herring's disinterested philanthropy.

 HERSCHEL, ALEXANDER STEWART (1836–1907), university professor and astronomer, second son of Sir John Frederick William Herschel, first baronet [q. v.], and grandson of Sir William Herschel [q. v.], was born on 5 Feb. 1836 at Feldhausen, South Africa, where his father was temporarily engaged in astronomical work. The family returned to England in 1838, and after some private education Alexander was sent to the Clapham grammar school in 1851, of which Charles Pritchard [q. v.], afterwards Savilian professor of astronomy, was headmaster. In 1855 he proceeded to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. as twentieth wrangler in 1859, proceeding M.A. in 1877. While an undergraduate he helped Prof. Clerk Maxwell [q.v.] with his illustrations of the mechanics of rotation by means of the apparatus known as 'the devil on two sticks.' From Cambridge Herschel passed in 1861 to the Royal School of Mines, London, and began the observation of meteors which he continued to the end of his life. He early wrote, chiefly on meteorological subjects, papers for the British Meteorological Society, and he contributed, between 1863 and 1867, many articles to the 'Intellectual Observer,' a scientific periodical.

From 1866 to 1871 Herschel was lecturer on natural philosophy, and professor of mechanical and experimental physics in the University of Glasgow. From 1871 to 1886 he was the first professor of physics and experimental philosophy in the University of Durham College of Science, Newcastle-on-Tyne. At the Durham College Herschel provided, chiefly by his personal exertions, apparatus for the newly installed laboratory, some being made by his own hands. When the college migrated as Armstrong College to new buildings, the new Herschel Physical Laboratory was named after him.

Herschel made some accurate records of his observations of shooting stars in a long series of manuscript notebooks. He also accomplished important work in the summation, reduction, and discussion of the results of other observers with whom he corresponded in all parts of the world. With R. P. Greg he formed extensive catalogues of the radiant points of meteor streams, the more important of these being published 