- Leonard Horner
Leonard Horner (
January 17 ,1785 –March 5 ,1864 ), Scottishgeologist , brother ofFrancis Horner , was born inEdinburgh .Horner was a 'radical educational reformer' who was involved in the establishment of
University College School . [ [http://www.edinburghacademy.org.uk/curriculum/history/enlightenment.htm Early history of The Edinburgh Academy ] ]Early life and education
His father, John Horner, was a linen merchant in Edinburgh, and Leonard, the third and youngest son, attended the Royal High School and entered the
University of Edinburgh in 1799. There in the course of the next four years he studiedchemistry andmineralogy , and gained a love ofgeology from "Playfairs Illustrations of the ilullonian Theory". At the age of nineteen he became a partner in a branch of his father's business, and went toLondon .Career
In 1808 he joined the newly formed
Geological Society of London and two years later was elected one of the secretaries. Throughout his long life he was ardently devoted to the welfare of the society; he was elected president in 1846 and again in 1860. In 1811 he read his first paper "On the Mineralogy of theMalvern Hills " ("Trans. Geol. Soc." vol. i.) and subsequently communicated other papers on the Brine-springs atDroitwich , and the "Geology of the S.W. part ofSomerset shire".He was elected fellow of the
Royal Society in 1813. In 1815 he returned to Edinburgh to take personal superintendence of his business, and while there (1821) he was instrumental in founding the Edinburgh School of Arts 101 the instruction of mechanics, and he was one of the founders of theEdinburgh Academy . In 1827 he was invited to London to become warden of London University (now University College London), an office which he held for four years; he then resided atBonn for two years and pursued the study of minerals and rocks, communicating to the Geological Society on his return a paper on the "Geology of the Environs of Bonn", and another "On the Quantity of Solic Matter suspended in the Water of the Rhine".Other appointments
In 1833 he was appointed one of the commissioners to inquire into the employment of children in the factories of
Great Britain , and he was subsequently selected as one of the inspectors. In later years he devoted much attention to the geological history of thi alluvial lands ofEgypt ; and in 1843 he published his "Life" of his brother Francis. He died in London on the 5th of March 1864.See "Memoir of Leonard Horner", by Katherine M Lyell (1890) (privately printed).----
References
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