Born Stockton-on-Tees, (Cleveland), England, 6 December 1888
Died Chelsea, (London), England, 18 April 1949
William Hay was an accomplished amateur astronomer who made one major discovery – the white spot on the planet Saturn – in 1933. To the public, however, he will be better remembered as Will Hay, the stage and screen comic actor.
Hay’s father, William Robert Hay, an engineer from Aberdeen, Scotland, married Elizabeth Ebdon in 1884; their union produced six children. The Hay family moved to England and a few years after William, the future astronomer, was born at Stockton-on-Tees, the family relocated to Manchester. It was there, when he was 15, that Hay met Gladys Perkins; they were married in 1907. Hay became an engineer apprentice, but was never really comfortable in that role. He had a great aptitude for languages, and having taught himself French, German, and subsequently Italian, he became an interpreter for a printers’ association in Manchester.
Meanwhile, Hay had taken part...
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Selected References
Alexander, A. F. O’D. (1962). The Planet Saturn, A History of Observation, Theory and Discovery. London: Faber and Faber, pp. 375–385.
Hay, W. T. (1933). “The Spot on Saturn.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 4: 85.
— (1935). Through My Telescope. London: John Murray.
Holborn, F. M. (1949). “William Thomson Hay.” Journal of the British Astronomical Association 59: 215.
Seaton, Ray and Roy Martin (1978). Good Morning, Boys: Will Hay, Master of Comedy. London: Barrie and Jenkins.
Waterfield, R. A. (1950). “William Thomson Hay.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 110: 130–131.
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Moore, P. (2014). Hay, William Thomson. In: Hockey, T., et al. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_589
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