William Michael Herbert Greaves

William Michael Herbert Greaves FRS^[1] FREng^[3] (10 September 1897 – 24 December 1955) was a British astronomer.^[4]

Education

He was born in Barbados, West Indies to Dr. E. C. Greaves, a medical doctor trained at the University of Edinburgh. William Greaves was educated first at Lodge School and Codrington College in Barbados then travelled to England to study at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he became a fellow in 1922.

Career

He is most noted for his work on stellar spectro-photometry.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1921, and from 1924 until 1938 he was the chief assistant at the RAS. In 1938 he became Astronomer Royal for Scotland, and in 1939 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He remained Astronomer Royal until 1955, and was Regius Professor of Astronomy at Edinburgh University for the same period. In 1943 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.^[1] From 1947 until 1949 he was president of the Royal Astronomical Society. In 2013, he was elected a Fellow^[5] of the Royal Academy of Engineering^[6] In 1926 he married Caroline Grace, and the couple had a son, George Richard Herbert Greaves (1941-2008) who became Reader in Mathematics at Cardiff University.

Awards and honors

• Tyson Gold Medal for Astronomy.
• Awarded Smith's prize in 1921.
• The crater Greaves on the Moon is named after him.
• Fellow^[7] of the Royal Academy of Engineering^[8]

References