Leonard Harrison Matthews FRS (12 June 1901 – 27 November 1986) was a British zoologist, especially known for his research and writings on

marine mammal Marine mammals are aquatic mammals that rely on the ocean and other marine ecosystems for their existence. They include animals such as seals, whales, manatees, sea otters and polar bears. They are an informal group, unified only by their reli ...

Life

Matthews was born in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, and attended

Bristol Grammar School Bristol Grammar School (BGS) is a 4–18 mixed, independent day school in Bristol, England. It was founded in 1532 by Royal Charter for the teaching of 'good manners and literature', endowed by wealthy Bristol merchants Robert and Nicholas Thorn ...

. He studied

biological sciences Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary ...

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...

, where he graduated with a first-class degree in 1922. He was involved with the

British Colonial Office The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created to deal with the colonial affairs of British North America but required also to oversee the increasing number of col ...

backed

Discovery Investigations The Discovery Investigations were a series of scientific cruises and shore-based investigations into the biology of whales in the Southern Ocean. They were funded by the British Colonial Office and organised by the Discovery Committee in London, wh ...

from 1924 to 1929, during which he was largely based on the

subantarctic The sub-Antarctic zone is a region in the Southern Hemisphere, located immediately north of the Antarctic region. This translates roughly to a latitude of between 46° and 60° south of the Equator. The subantarctic region includes many islands ...

island of

South Georgia South Georgia ( es, Isla San Pedro) is an island in the South Atlantic Ocean that is part of the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It lies around east of the Falkland Islands. Stretching in the east� ...

studying the biology of

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...

s and

southern elephant seal The southern elephant seal (''Mirounga leonina'') is one of two species of elephant seals. It is the largest member of the clade Pinnipedia and the order Carnivora, as well as the largest extant marine mammal that is not a cetacean. It gets it ...

s. He then held an academic position at the

University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he worked on radio communications and radar. He served as scientific director of the

Zoological Society of London The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is a charity devoted to the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. It was founded in 1826. Since 1828, it has maintained the London Zoo, and since 1931 Whipsnade Park. History On 29 ...

from 1951 to 1966. His younger brother was the physiologist Sir Bryan Harold Cabot Matthews CBE FRS and his uncle the chemical scientist Lt-Col Edward Frank Harrison, inventor of the first serviceable gas mask.

Honours

* 1954 –

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

* Harrison Point and Matthews Point in South Georgia are named after him

Publications

As well as numerous scientific papers and reports, Matthews also authored several books about his experiences in South Georgia. His publications include: * 1931 – ''South Georgia, the Empire's Sub-Antarctic Outpost''. John Wright & Sons: Bristol. * 1934 – ''The Marine Deposits of the Patagonian Continental Shelf''. (Discovery Reports). Cambridge University Press. * 1937 – ''The Humpback whale, Megaptera Nodosa'', (Discovery reports). Cambridge University Press. * 1938 – ''The Sei whale, Balaenoptera Borealis''. (Discovery reports). Cambridge University Press. * 1938 – ''Notes on the Southern Right whale, Eubalaena Australis''. (Discovery reports). Cambridge University Press. * 1938 – ''The Sperm whale, Physeter Catodon''. (Discovery reports). Cambridge University Press. * 1939 – ''Reproduction in the Spotted Hyena''. Cambridge University Press, for the Royal Society. * 1951 – ''Wandering Albatross: Adventures among the Albatrosses and Petrels in the Southern Ocean''. London. Macgibbon & Kee, with Reinhardt & Evans: London. * 1952 – ''The British Amphibia and Reptiles''. (Field study books series). Methuen: London. * 1952 – ''British mammals''. (New Naturalist 21). Collins: London. * 1952 – ''Sea Elephant: The Life and Death of the Elephant Seal''. MacGibbon & Kee: London. * 1956 – The sexual skin of the Gelada Baboon (''Theropithecus gelada''). ''Transactions of the Zoological Society of London''. * 1962 – ''History of Pharmacy in Britain''. E. & S. Livingstone: Edinburgh. * 1963 – ''The Senses of Animals''. (With Maxwell Knight). Scientific Book Club: London. * 1968 – ''The Whale''. Allen & Unwin: London. * 1969-1971 – ''The Life of Mammals''. (2 vols). Weidenfeld & Nicolson: London. * 1973 – ''Charles Waterton: Wanderings in South America''. (Editor and Introduction). Oxford University Press: Oxford. * 1975 – ''Man and Wildlife''. (Biology and Environment series). Croom Helm: London. * 1977 – ''Penguin. Adventures among the Birds, Beasts and Whalers of the Far South''. Peter Owen: London. * 1978 – ''The Natural History of the Whale''. Weidenfeld and Nicolson: London. * 1979 – ''The Seals and the Scientists''. Peter Owen: London. * 1982 – ''Mammals in the British Isles''. (New Naturalist 68). Collins: London.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Matthews, Leonard Harrison 1901 births 1986 deaths Alumni of King's College, Cambridge British mammalogists British nature writers South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands people Scientists from Bristol Fellows of the Royal Society Cetologists New Naturalist writers 20th-century British zoologists