William Reid, amateur entomologist and astronomer, was the son of John Reid and Jean Hall. He was married to Lily Mary Bone and became a prominent South African amateur
astronomer during the early part of the twentieth century, residing in Cape
Town. Though he had an early interest in astronomy he started out as an amateur entomologist in Scotland, was elected a Fellow of the Entomological Society, and compiled a List of the Lepidoptera of Aberdeenshire and Kincardineshire (1863). A species of moth was named in his honour.
Reid came to South Africa for health reasons and joined his brother-in-law, Mr James Chalmers, on the staff of John Forrest and Co., millers (later SASKO), remaining in their employ until just before his death. He became an amateur astronomer, erected a private observatory in his garden in Observatory, Cape Town, and in November 1912 was one of the founders of the Cape Astronomical Association. He served as a member of its first council and almost continuously as a member of council thereafter. In 1913 he became the first director of the association's
Meteor Observing Section and also directed the Variable Star Section,
formed in March 1914. Following the disruption caused by the outbreak of World
War 1 (1914-1918), the association was revived in 1916, with Reid serving as
vice-president. By this time he was an assiduous searcher for comets and in due course gained an international reputation as a comet hunter. In 1917 he was appointed to direct the Comet Section, while the Variable Star Section
was taken over by John F. Skjellerup*. That same year he purchased a 150 mm refracting
telescope and ten years later published a paper on 'Amateur observations with a
six-inch telescope' (Journal of the
Astronomical Society of South Africa, 1927, Vol. 2(2), pp. 39-52). After
three years of searching he discovered his first new comet, followed later by five others. In March 1920 he made the historical observation, with C.L.O'B
Dutton and D.G. McIntyre*, of the visible passage of a star behind all the
rings of Saturn. The observation was at first received with skepticism in
Britain, but was found to be beyond dispute.
When the Cape Astronomical Association amalgamated with its
counterpart in Johannesburg to form the Astronomical Society of South Africa in 1922,
Reid was elected a member of the first council, served as president of the society
for 1925/6, and was the director of the Comet Section until his death in 1928. In
1925 he published an article on 'Comet hunting' in the society's Journal (Vol. 1(5), pp. 133-138). His
contributions to comet work brought the society into international prominence. He was a member of the British Astronomical Association and early
in 1928 received the Jackson-Gwilt Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
for his comet observations. The
Meteor Section he had started in 1913 failed because of lack of support, but in
1922 it was revived and directed by D.G. McIntyre, with whom Reid obtained many
useful results for a few years.
