Born: March 16, 1750 in Hannover, Hanover (now Germany). Died: Jan 9, 1848 in Hannover, Hanover (now Germany)

After the French occupation of Hanover in 1757, Isaac was occupied fighting the French and so was not at home. William escaped to England, where he became a music teacher, and Caroline was left under the control of her mother who sent her to learn to knit and otherwise kept her fully occupied with household chores. In 1760 Isaac returned home in poor health and Caroline essentially lived the life of a servant until he died in 1767. The death of her father seems to have made Caroline realise that she had to take some control of her own life and she took lessons in dressmaking and studied to qualify as a governess. However, fitting in the studies while her mother demanded so much work from her proved a great strain.

In 1766 William became an organist in Bath and, in 1772, Caroline joined him there. She made this move despite strong protests from her mother who was very unhappy at effectively losing a servant. Caroline had always been very close to her brother William and, after arriving in Bath, she trained as a singer receiving lessons from her brother. William taught Caroline more than musical skills. He had studied mathematics and astronomy in his spare time at the end of a long day after many hours teaching music, reading works such as Maclaurin's Fluxions (Newton's name for the differential and integral calculus). Now William began to teach Caroline English and mathematics while he himself became more and more involved with astronomy.

Caroline began giving successful singing performances [6]:-

As first treble in the Messiah, Judas Macabaeus, etc., she sang at Bath or Bristol sometimes five nights in the week, but declined an engagement for the Birmingham festival, having resolved to appear only where her brother conducted.

Almost inevitably Caroline's role changed from looking after William to helping him with his scientific activities which soon occupied every available moment. Astronomy changed from a hobby for William in 1781 when he achieved fame by discovering the planet now named Uranus. King George III gave William a 200 per year salary which was less than generous but sufficient to allow him to become a full-time astronomer. Giving up their musical activities the Herschels moved to Datchet in August 1782 where they remained until June 1785 when they moved again, this time into Clay Hall, near Windsor. It was certainly not without many regrets that Caroline abandoned music and began to take an active part in astronomy. William gave her a telescope with which she began to make observations, in particular searching for comets making methodical sweeps of the sky.

Caroline found much less time than she expected to make her own observations as she became fully involved helping William with his astronomical projects. By day Caroline would work on the results obtained by William while observing on the previous night. She carried out the lengthy calculations necessary to reduce William's data with remarkable accuracy. In fact only when William was away from home was Caroline able to spend much time with her own program of research. In April 1786 William and Caroline moved to a new home they called Observatory House which was in Slough and there, on 1 August 1786, Caroline discovered her first comet which was described by some as the "first lady's comet". This discovery brought Caroline a certain degree of fame and articles were written about her. In 1787 King George III gave Caroline a 50 per year salary as assistant to William.

In total Caroline discovered eight comets between 1786 and 1797 and she then embarked on a new project of cross-referencing and correcting the star catalogue which had been produced by Flamsteed. In 1798 Caroline submitted to the Royal Society an Index to Flamsteed's Observations of the Fixed Stars together with a list of 560 stars which had been omitted. This publication marked the temporary end of her own researches which she would not begin again until 25 years later after William's death.

Caroline became involved with the education of John Herschel, William and Mary Herschel's son who was born in 1792. She saw him educated at Cambridge, make a name for himself as a mathematician, become elected to the Royal Society, join his father in research in astronomy and be awarded the Copley Medal of the Royal Society for his achievements. Caroline continued to assist William with his observations but her status had greatly improved from the housekeeper she had been in her young days. She was the guest of Maskelyne at the Royal Observatory in 1799 and a guest of members of the Royal Family at various times in 1816, 1817 and 1818.

All her energies had been directed towards helping her brother in his astronomical work during his lifetime but now she turned to help his son John Herschel. She completed her catalogue of 2500 nebulae and, in 1828, the Royal Astronomical Society awarded her its gold medal for this work.

Although Caroline regretted spending her last 25 years in Hanover there were many compensations. She was now a celebrity in the world of science and she was visited by many scientists including the great mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss. Caroline Herschel received many honours for her scientific achievements. Together with Mary Somerville, she was elected to honorary membership of the Royal Society in 1835. They were the first honorary women members. She was also elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 1838 and then on her 96th birthday she received a letter [3]:-

His Majesty the King of Prussia, in recognition of the valuable service rendered to astronomy by you, as the fellow worker of your immortal brother, wishes to convey to you in his name the Large Gold Medal for science.

... entertained the crown prince and princess with great animation for two hours, even singing to them a composition of her brother William.