J. L. B. Smith

{{short description|South African ichthyologist}} {{EngvarB|date=February 2018}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}} {{Infobox scientist | honorific_prefix = | name = | honorific_suffix = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image = Smith with the second coelacanth ever caught 2.png | image_size = | image_upright = | alt = | caption = The second coelacanth ever caught in 1952, with J.L.B. Smith, surrounded with the crew and airmen who flew Smith to the Comoros on order by prime minister D.F. Malan. Image reprinted in Mail & Guardian. Location: South Africa. | birth_name = James Leonard Brierley Smith | birth_date = {{birth date |df=y|1897|09|26}} | birth_place = Graaff-Reinet, Cape Colony | death_date = {{death date and age |df=y|1968|01|08 |1897|09|26}} | death_place = Grahamstown, South Africa | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_co-ordinates =  | other_names = | pronounce = | residence = | citizenship = | nationality = | fields = Ichthyologist | workplaces = Rhodes University | patrons = | education = Diocesan College | alma_mater = {{plainlist| * University of the Cape of Good Hope * Stellenbosch University * University of Cambridge}} | thesis_title =  | thesis_url =  | thesis_year =  | doctoral_advisor =  | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = Coelacanth | influences = | influenced = | awards = | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | spouse = Margaret Mary Smith | partner = | children = William Smith | signature =  | signature_alt = | website =  | footnotes = }} '''James Leonard Brierley Smith''' (26 September 1897 – 8 January 1968) was a South African ichthyologist, organic chemist, and university professor.<ref name="DSAB">{{cite encyclopedia|title= Smith, James Leonard Brierley |encyclopedia=Dictionary of South African Biography|volume=IV|pages=580–2|publisher=Human Sciences Research Council|year=1981|isbn=0-409-09183-9}}</ref><ref name="mmsmith">{{cite book|title= J.L.B. Smith: his life and work | publisher=Rhodes University |location=Grahamstown| hdl=10962/d1020237 }}</ref> He was the first to identify a taxidermied fish as a coelacanth, at the time thought to be long extinct.

==Early life== Born in Graaff-Reinet, 26 September 1897, Smith was the elder of two sons of Joseph Smith and his wife, Emily Ann Beck.<ref name="DSAB"/> Educated at country schools at Noupoort, De Aar, and Aliwal North, he finally matriculated in 1914 from the Diocesan College, Rondebosch.<ref name="DSAB"/> He obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry from the University of the Cape of Good Hope in 1916 and a Master of Science degree in chemistry at Stellenbosch University in 1918. Smith went to the United Kingdom, where he received his PhD at Cambridge University in 1922. After returning to South Africa, he became senior lecturer and later an associate professor of organic chemistry at Rhodes University in Grahamstown.<ref name="mmsmith"/>

From 1922 to 1937, he was married to Henrietta Cecile Pienaar, who was a descendant of Andrew Murray, and whose father was a minister of the NG Kerk at Somerset West. Three children resulted from the marriage.<ref name="DSAB"/>

In Grahamstown, he met Margaret Mary Macdonald, born at Indwe in the Eastern Cape on 26 September 1916.<ref name = "SESA">{{cite encyclopedia|title = Smith, James Leonard Brierley|encyclopedia = Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa|volume = 10|pages = 10–11|publisher = Nasou Limited|year = 1971|isbn = 978-0-625-00324-2}}</ref> After her school education, she studied at Rhodes University, where she obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in physics and chemistry. She had intended to study medicine, but in 1938, married Smith and became his assistant in the Department of Ichthyology at the university.<ref name = "SESA"/>

His interest in ichthyology was sparked in childhood during a vacation in Knysna.<ref>{{cite book|last=Clymer|first=Eleanor|title=Search for a Living Fossil|publisher=Scholastic|year=1966|page=15}}</ref>

==Discovery of the coelacanth== In 1938, Smith was informed of the discovery of an unusual and unidentified fish by Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, curator of the East London Museum. When he arrived in East London in February 1939, he was able to identify it immediately as a coelacanth, which was then thought to have been extinct for over 65 million years, and he named the species ''Latimeria'' after her. In December 1952, Professor Smith acquired another specimen which had been caught by a fisherman named Ahmed Houssein<ref>{{Cite web|title=The coelacanth story, Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, JLB Smith|url=https://www.knysnamuseums.co.za/pages/the-coelacanth/|access-date=2022-01-03|website=www.knysnamuseums.co.za|language=en}}</ref> off the Comoros Islands. Local trader Eric Hunt had cabled Smith, who then persuaded the South African government to fly him in a SAAF Dakota to collect the preserved fish for study at Grahamstown.<ref>Cotter, Jarrod ''Flying Fishcart'' article ''Fly Past'' magazine February 2006 pp78-9</ref>

Smith and his wife Margaret worked jointly on the popular ''Sea Fishes of Southern Africa'', which was first published in 1949, followed by other writings until 1968. Among these were over 500 papers on fishes and the naming of some 370 new fish species.

==Death and legacy== Smith killed himself on 8 January 1968 by cyanide poisoning after many years of struggle with cancer. In the same year, Rhodes University established the J. L. B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology in his memory and to honour his lifetime achievements in ichthyology. His widow, Prof. Margaret Smith, who had worked with her husband for 30 years, was appointed the first director, with a staff of five. Margaret Smith embarked on a recruitment drive to attract ichthyologists and to train African ichthyologists. In 1977, the large, three-storey building, which was designed and constructed in Somerset Street to house the institute, was officially opened.<ref>{{Cite book|title = "Historical highlights: the JLB Smith Institute of Ichthyology and the Department of Ichthyology and Fisheries Science, 1946–1996" In: ''The JLB Smith Institute of Ichthyology: 50 years of Ichthyology'', PH Skelton & JRE Luteharms (eds.).|last = Pote|first = Jean|publisher = JLB Smith Institute of Ichthyology|year = 1997|isbn = 0958395829|location = Grahamstown|pages = 6}}</ref> This is now the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity in Grahamstown. Smith's son was renowned South African television science and mathematics teacher William Smith.

== Taxon named in his honour == *'''''Meiacanthus smithi''''', the '''disco blenny''',<ref name = ETYFish>{{cite web | url = http://www.etyfish.org/blenniiformes2/ | title = Order BLENNIIFORMES: Family BLENNIIDAE | work = The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database | accessdate = 1 April 2019 | date = 26 October 2018 | author1 = Christopher Scharpf | author2 = Kenneth J. Lazara | publisher = Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara}}</ref> is named for him. *''Omobranchus smithi'' <small>(Rao, 1974)</small> is a species of combtooth blenny named for him.<ref name = ETYFish1>{{cite web | url = http://www.etyfish.org/blenniiformes2/ | title = Order BLENNIIFORMES: Family BLENNIIDAE | access-date= 1 March 2021 | author1 = Christopher Scharpf | author2 = Kenneth J. Lazara | name-list-style = amp | work = The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database | publisher = Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara | date = 22 September 2018}}</ref>

==Taxa described by him== *See :Category:Taxa named by J. L. B. Smith

==References== {{reflist}}

==Further reading== * {{cite book|title=J.L.B. Smith: his life, work, bibliography and list of new species|year=1969|publisher=Department of Ichthyology, Rhodes University|location=Grahamstown|hdl=10962/d1020233}} * {{cite book|last=Smith|first=J.L.B.|title=The search beneath the sea – The story of the coelacanth|year=1956|publisher=Holt|location=New York|ol=6202269M}} * Hoese, D.F., 1986. Gobiidae. p. 774-807. In M.M. Smith and P.C. Heemstra (eds.) Smiths' sea fishes. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.

==External links== {{Library resources box|onlinebooks=yes|by=yes}} * [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/fish/letters.html Smith's communications upon discovery of the Coelacanth] * [http://www.stellenboschwriters.com/smithjlb.html Short biography] * [https://vital.seals.ac.za/vital/access/manager/Repository?collection=vital%3A91&sort=ss_dateNormalized+desc%2Csort_ss_title+asc&query= Ichthyological Bulletin] * [https://vital.seals.ac.za/vital/access/manager/Repository?collection=vital%3A92&sort=ss_dateNormalized+desc%2Csort_ss_title+asc&query= JLB Smith Collection Papers]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, J. L. B.}} Category:1897 births Category:1968 suicides Category:1968 deaths Category:People from Graaff-Reinet Category:South African people of British descent Category:Academic staff of Rhodes University Category:South African ichthyologists Category:Suicides in South Africa Category:Suicides by cyanide poisoning Category:Stellenbosch University alumni Category:Alumni of the University of Cambridge Category:20th-century South African zoologists Category:Alumni of Diocesan College, Cape Town