{{Short description|First wife of Louis Leakey}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2022}} {{Infobox person | image = Frida_Leakey_obit_picture.png | image_size = | caption = | birth_name = Henrietta Wilfrida Avern | birth_date = 1902 | birth_place = | death_date = {{death date and age|1993|08|19|1902|||df=y}} | death_place = | death_cause = | other_names = | known_for = Discovering Frida Leakey Gorge | education = Newnham College | employer = | occupation = Teacher | title = | spouse = {{marriage|Louis Leakey|1928|1936|end=div}} | children = {{ublist|Priscilla Muthoni Leakey|Colin Leakey}} | parents = | relatives = | signature = | website = | footnotes = }}

'''Henrietta Wilfrida "Frida" Leakey'''; née '''Avern''' (1902 – 19 August 1993), also known as '''H. Wilfrida Leakey''', was a British teacher and archaeological illustrator who discovered a gorge that was named FLK or "Frida Leakey Korongo". The gorge was the site of ancient stone tools and important human fossil discoveries. Leakey was the first wife of paleoanthropologist and archaeologist, Louis Leakey. She later became a leader in the Women's Institute and a County Councillor in Cambridgeshire.

==Life== She was born in 1902 and her father, Henry Averne, sold cork in Reigate in Surrey. She attended the Sorbonne before going on to Newnham College, Cambridge. She then went to Kent where she worked teaching French at Benenden School in Tunbridge Wells.<ref name=frida>{{Cite ODNB|title=Leakey, Henrietta Wilfrida (1902–1993)|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-52219|access-date=23 September 2020|year=2004|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/52219}}</ref>

She married paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey in 1928 and their first child was a daughter Priscilla Muthoni Leakey.<ref name=frida/> Frida used an inheritance to purchase a large brick house in Girton, which the family named "The Close".

She participated in digs in East Africa<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Franck |first1=Irene M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5_wSAQAAMAAJ&q=Frida+Avern+Leakey |title=Women's World: A Timeline of Women in History |last2=Brownstone |first2=David M. |date=1995 |publisher=HarperPerennial |isbn=978-0-06-273336-8 |pages=343 |language=en}}</ref> and learnt how to construct archaeological illustrations during fieldwork. It is her illustrations that are included in "''The Stone Age Cultures of Kenya Colony''"<ref name=trowel>{{Cite web|title=Frida Avern Leakey {{!}} TrowelBlazers|date=20 December 2016 |url=https://trowelblazers.com/frida-avern-leakey/|access-date=23 September 2020}}</ref> published by her husband in 1931. The book describes their excavations in 1926–7 and 1928–9.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Leakey|first=L. S. B.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HdpS49YyoV0C|title=The Stone Age Cultures of Kenya Colony|date=20 June 2013|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-61547-2|language=en}}</ref>

In 1931<ref>{{Citation |last1=Ranhorn |first1=Kathryn L. |title=Tanzanian Women in Archaeology |date=2023 |work=Women in Archaeology: Intersectionalities in Practice Worldwide |pages=461–481 |editor-last=López Varela |editor-first=Sandra L. |url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-27650-7_23 |access-date=2024-10-05 |place=Cham |publisher=Springer International Publishing |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-031-27650-7_23 |isbn=978-3-031-27650-7 |last2=Bundala |first2=Mariam|url-access=subscription }}</ref> she discovered a gorge off Olduvai Gorge that was named "FLK" for "Frida Leakey Korongo".<ref name=frida/> This gorge would be an outstanding source of human fossils.<ref name=trowel/>

Her husband's behaviour was criticised by both Nairobi society and his family and friends when he left her just after the birth of their son Colin in December 1933.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Johanson |first1=Donald |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HgGNlFMM5XQC&dq=Frida+Avern+Leakey&pg=PA402 |title=Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind |last2=Edey |first2=Maitland |date=1990-09-15 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-0-671-72499-3 |pages=85–86 |language=en}}</ref> She had suffered from severe morning sickness throughout the pregnancy and had been unable to work on the illustrations for Louis's second book, ''Adam's Ancestors.'' Louis recruited Mary Nichol to work on the illustrations and their collaboration turned into an affair.<ref name="passion" /> In 1936, Frida divorced Louis for his infidelity<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bowman-Kruhm |first=Mary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9OHEEAAAQBAJ&q=frida |title=The Leakeys: A Biography |date=2005-08-30 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=978-0-313-06211-7 |pages=36 |language=en}}</ref> and he quickly married Mary.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|title=Leakey [née Nicol], Mary Douglas (1913–1996), archaeologist and palaeoanthropologist|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-56023|access-date=23 September 2020|year = 2004|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/56023}}</ref> Frida, her son, and her daughter went to live in Cambridge.<ref name=":0" /> Colin did not see his father again until he was 19.<ref name="passion">{{cite book |last1=Morell |first1=Virginia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TKatWz1z3r8C&q=Frida+Avern+Leakey |title=Ancestral Passions: The Leakey Family and the Quest for Humankind's Beginnings |date=2011 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=9781439143872 |page=}}</ref>

During the Second World War she organised billeting at Girton College. She was elected chair of the Women's Institute in Cambridgeshire and she was elected as an independent county councillor for Cambridgeshire.<ref name=frida/>

==Death and legacy== She died in 1993, leaving two children.<ref name=frida/>

The gorge that she had discovered, Frida Leakey Korongo, was found to have had hominids (''Homo erectus'') living there 1.5 million years ago. They used stone tools<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chopping tool |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1934-1214-2#:~:text=Found%20in%20Frida%20Leakey%20Korongo,%20Bed%20I. |access-date=5 October 2024 |website=The British Museum |archive-date=7 October 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007103030/https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1934-1214-2#:~:text=Found%20in%20Frida%20Leakey%20Korongo,%20Bed%20I. |url-status=live }}</ref> and their diet included the hippopotamus. Excavations were still ongoing in 2019.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The CENIEH continues collaborating on the reconstruction of the landscape of Olduvai Gorge {{!}} CENIEH|url=https://www.cenieh.es/en/press/news/cenieh-continues-collaborating-reconstruction-landscape-olduvai-gorge|access-date=23 September 2020|website=www.cenieh.es}}</ref>

==Works== * ''Cambridgeshire: A Chronicle of Country Women, 1918-1968''. Royston: The Priory Press, 1968.

==References== {{reflist}}

{{Leakey family tree}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leakey, Frida}} Category:1902 births Category:1993 deaths Category:British educators Category:Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Category:20th-century British explorers Category:Women councillors in England Category:Councillors in Cambridgeshire Category:British women archaeologists Category:20th-century British women educators