James L. Smith

James Leonard Brierley Smith, known as J.L.B. Smith is a South African ichthyologist, organic chemist and university professor.He was the first to identify a taxidermied fish as a coelacanth, at the time thought long extinct.

Born in Graaff-Reinet, Smith was the elder of two sons of Joseph Smith and his wife, Emily Ann Beck. Educated at country schools at Noupoort, De Aar, and Aliwal North, he finally matriculated in 1914 from the Diocesan College, Rondebosch. He obtained a BA degree in Chemistry from the University of the Cape of Good Hope in 1956 and an MSc degree in Chemistry at Stellenbosch University in 1918. Smith went to the United Kingdom, where he received his Ph.D at Cambridge University in 1922. After returning to South Africa, he became Senior Lecturer and later on an Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry at Rhodes University in Grahamstown.

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. There were three children of that marriage.

In Grahamstown he met Margaret Mary Macdonald, born at Indwe in the Eastern Cape on 26 September 1916. After her school education she studied at Rhodes University where she obtained a B.Sc. degree in Physics and Chemistry. She had intended studying medicine, but in 1938 married Smith and became his assistant in the department of ichthyology at the university.

His interest in ichthyology was sparked in childhood during a vacation in Knysna.

In 1938 Smith was informed of the discovery o