| Authorised form of name | Spencer; Leonard James (1870 - 1959); mineralogist and geologist |
| Dates | 1870 - 1959 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Worcester, England |
| Date of birth | 07 July 1870 |
| Place of death | St James's Hospital, Balham, London, England |
| Date of death | 14 April 1959 |
| DatesAndPlaces | Place of marriage: Stratfield Mortimer, near Reading, England. |
| Occupation | Mineralogist and geologist |
| Research field | Geology |
| Mineralogy |
| Activity | Education:
Keighley trade and grammar school; Bradford Technical College; Royal College of Science, Dublin; MA, ScD (Camb)
Career:
Took up an appointment at the department of mineralogy of the British Museum (Natural Museum) (1 January 1894); employed abstracting papers for the Patent Office (1885); Editor (since 1901) of the 'Mineralog Mag'; awarded the Wollaston Fund by the Geological Society of London (1902); special constable in the Metropolitan Police (1915-1918); interested in meteorites, particularly tektites; Keeper of minerals, Minerals Department, British Museum (1927-1935); examiner for the natural science tripos at Cambridge (1931-2); died of a cerebral thrombosis and arteriosclerosis.
Memberships:
ARCS (Dubl); FGS (VP 1945–6); Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland (President 1936-1939)
Awards/Medals:
Murchison medal 1937
Roebling medal 1940 |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 07/05/1925 |
| Age at election | 55 |
| Proposer | George Thurland Prior; Lazarus Fletcher; William James Lewis; John Edward Marr; Thomas George Bonney; Henry Alexander Miers; Charles William Andrews; John William Evans; Arthur Smith Woodward; John Walter Gregory; John Edward Stead;William Fletcher Barrett |
| Relationships | Parents: James Spencer, schoolmaster, and Elizabeth Bonser.
Spouse: Edith Mary Close (1872–1954) daughter of Islip J. Close, farmer, of Mortimer in Berkshire, (5 April 1899).
Children: One son and two daughters. |
| PublishedWorks | RCN 16006
RCN 9017
RCN 16007 |
| OtherInfo | Named new minerals: miersite, tarbuttite, parahopeite, chloroxiphite, diaboleite, schulterite, aramayoite, and bismutotantalite. Provided new information on incompletely described minerals such as plagionite, heteromorphite, and semseyite. |
| Royal Society Obituary or Memoir | Click to view (may be contained within a meeting notice, presidential address or list of death notices) |
| Related images | Discover a selection of related images in our picture library |
| Image | 
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| Source | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DSB
Obituaries:
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 1961 vol 7 pp 243-248, plate, by C E Tilley |
| Code | NA5254 |
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| NLB/15/138 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Leonard James Spencer, [Fellow of the Royal Society], Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, South Kensington, S.W. | 5 July 1897 |
| NLB/16/881 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to L [J] Spencer, 10 Barclay Road, Walham Green | 27 June 1898 |
| RR/58/15 | Referee's report by Leonard James Spencer, on a paper 'The British silurian rugose corals with acanthine septa' by Dorothy Hill | 29 January 1936 |
| NLB/71/145 | Copy letter from Francis Alexander Towle, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Dr. [Leonard James] Spencer, FRS | 21 January 1928 |
| IM/GA/WS/3984 | Spencer, Leonard James | 1950 |
| EC/1925/13 | Spencer, Leonard James: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| RR/66/52 | Referee's report by Leonard James Spencer, on a paper 'The lamellar structure of potash-soda felspars' by S H Chao and W H Taylor | 25 June 1939 |
| NLB/67/710 | Copy letter from unknown correspondent; to unknown correspondent | 19 February 1925 |
| MC/37/97 | Letter from [Leonard James] Spencer, Natural History Museum, London, S.W. 7., to The Secretary, Royal Society | 14 January 1923 |