Leonora Jeffrey Rintoul

Leonora Jeffrey Rintoul FRSE (1878-1953) was a Scottish ornithologist and rare female member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In authorship she is known as L. J. Rintoul and is closesly associated with her friend and co-author E. V. Baxter.

Life

The grave of Leonora J. Rintoul, Old Nowburn Churchyard, Fife

She was born on 2 February 1878 at Lahill in Largo, Fife. She was the daughter of Major Robert Rintoul and his wife Margaret Jeffrey, daughter of John Jeffrey of Balsusney House in Kirkcaldy. Her grandfather, who died before she was born, was the botanist, John Jeffrey.

With Baxter she was a strong supporter of the Women's Rural Institute in Scotland. In the Second World War she helped to organise the Women's Land Army in Fife.

In 1951 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Her proposers were James Ritchie, Alexander Peacock, John Berry and Sir Maurice Yonge. Together with Baxter she served as Joint President of the Scottish Ornithologists Club.

She died at Balsusney in Upper Largo on 22 May 1953 and is buried with her parents within the abandoned church at Newburn, Fife, a popular spot for romantically sited burials.

She never married and had no children.

Legacy

Her collection of birds is held by the National Museum of Scotland.

She also donated an unusual collection of Scottish basketry to the Museum.

Publications

All these works were co-written with E. V. Baxter

• The Birds of the Isle of May (1918)
• Some Breeding Scottish Duck (1922)
• The Geographical Distribution and Status of Birds in Scotland (1928)
• Birds of Scotland (1953)