Leonard Frank Spath, 1882-1957

Abstract

Leonard Frank Spath was born on 20 October 1882. The writer has been unable to obtain any reliable information regarding his parentage, place of birth (which there are reasons to think was overseas), and school education. A statement published elsewhere, from hearsay, that he came from South Africa has not been confirmed. It seems not to have occurred to Spath that such information would interest posterity, and he deposited no personal record with the Royal Society; nor, apparently, did he ever speak of his earlier years to friends or even in his own family circle. It is probable that he lost both parents while young. At about the time when he first became known to members of the staff of the British Museum (Natural History) Spath occupied a studio in Chelsea, and visitors formed the impression that he was professionally engaged in some form of commercial art and had been well trained for it. A desire to study geology, he later told others, had been fostered by a keenness for mountaineering when a young man; and so he decided to become qualified for a geological career. He seems to have pursued his studies largely by private reading, but registered at Birkbeck College, London, for the Intermediate B.Sc. course in Geology for the 1908-1909 session, and attended evening classes at that institution intermittently for the next year or two. He took his B.Sc. degree in December, 1912, gaining First Class Honours in Geology. For examination purposes he specialized in the petrological side of the subject, although already more interested in fossils than in rocks.