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Sir William James Herschel, 2nd Baronet (January 9, 1833 – October 24, 1917) was a British officer in India who used fingerprints for contract identification. He was the son of astronomer John Herschel and was born in Slough, Buckinghamshire (now Berkshire). He was the grandson of astronomer William Herschel and the son of astronomer, John ...
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. Upon his death the baronetcy passed to his son. Fingerprinting Fingerprints taken by Herschel 1859/60
- 24 October 1917 (aged 84)
- 9 January 1833, Slough, England
- Fingerprints, forensics
William James Herschel is considered one of the first Europeans to recognize the value of fingerprints for identification purposes. He began using fingerprints and handprints, instead of signatures, in his work as a magistrate in colonial India in the 1850s and 1860s. He later collaborated with scientist Francis Galton , whose work led to ...
Aug 14, 2021 · Sir William James Herschel 1858. Herschel (1833-1917) was one of the first to advocate the use of fingerprinting in the identification of criminal suspects. While working for the Indian Civil Service, he began to use thumbprints on documents as a security measure to prevent the repudiation of signatures in 1858. Sir William Herschel finger prints.
- Dedication
- Preface
- The Origin of Finger-Printing
- Appendix
TO SIR EDWARD HENRY, G.C.V.O., K.C.B.,C.S.I.
Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.
The following pages have two objects: first, toplace on record the genesis of the Finger-printmethod of personal identification, from its discoveryin Bengal in 1858, till its public demonstrationthere in 1877-8; secondly, to examine the scantysuggestions of evidence that this use of our fingershad been foreshadowed in Europe more than ahundred year...
In 1858, after five years' service, as an Assistantunder the old East India Company, in the interiorof Bengal, I was in charge of my first subdivision,the head-quarters of which were then at Jungipoor,on the upper reaches of the Hooghly river. Myexecutive and magisterial experience had by thattime forced on me that distrust of all evidencetendered ...
When I speak of the 'discovery' of finger-printsnigh sixty years ago, I should wish to be understoodcorrectly. I cannot say that I thought of it as suchuntil Mr. Galton examined old records in search ofearlier notices of the subject. What he found hadbeen beyond my ken, and I never inquired formyself. The fascination of experiments and theimpelling...
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Mar 27, 2023 · Human fingerprinting goes back thousands of years, but the first modern use of it for identification likely originated in colonial India. Around 1860, Sir William James Herschel, a British Indian Civil Service officer, began experimenting with finger- and handprints as a way to sign contracts.
WHEN Sir Francis Galton issued “Finger-Print Directories” in 1895 he inscribed the volume to Sir William J. Herschel, Bart., in the following words:—“I do myself the pleasure of dedicating ...
