Career
Having served for five years in the Royal Navy in the West Indies he went up to Christ Church, Oxford, intending to take holy orders. He began his clerical duties at Bishopthorpe, Yorkshire, in 1811. In 1824 he became canon of York and rector of Wheldrake in Yorkshire, and in 1837 rector of Bolton Percy. The Yorkshire School for the Blind and the Castle Howard reformatory both owe their existence to his energies.
Having developed a great interest in science while at the university, he took an active part in the foundation of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, of which he was the first president. The laws and the plan of proceedings for the British Association for the Advancement of Science were drawn up by him; and Harcourt was elected president in 1839. His spare time until quite late in life was occupied with scientific experiments. He collaborated with Sir George Gabriel Stokes for example. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1824.
He inherited the Harcourt estates in Oxfordshire from his brother in 1861 and moved to Nuneham House, where he died.
He married (1824) Mary, daughter of Col. William Gooch and changed his name from Vernon-Harcourt to Harcourt circa 1830. His second son, William, was a successful politician.
Read more about this topic: William Vernon Harcourt (scientist)
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