Editing Louis Leakey (section)

==Formative years==
=== Attendance at Cambridge ===
In Britain, the Leakey children attended primary school; in Africa, they had a tutor. The family spent [[World War I]] in Africa. When the sea lanes opened again in 1919, they returned to Boscombe, and Louis was sent to [[Weymouth College (Public School)|Weymouth College]], a private boys' school, when he was 16 years old. He did not do well and, in about three years, complained of hazing and rules that he considered an infringement on his freedom. Advised by one teacher to seek employment in a bank, he secured help from an English teacher in applying to [[St John's College, Cambridge]]. He received a scholarship for his high scores on the entrance exams.

Louis matriculated at the [[University of Cambridge]], his father's alma mater, in 1922, intending to become a missionary to British East Africa.

He frequently told a story about his final exams. When he had arrived in Britain, he had notified the registrar that he was fluent in [[Swahili language|Swahili]]. When he came to his finals, he asked to be examined in this language, and the authorities agreed. Then one day, he received two letters. One instructed him to report at a certain time and place for a ''[[Oral exam|viva voce]]'' examination in Swahili. The other asked if, at the same time and place, he would examine a candidate in Swahili.{{Citation needed|date=June 2022}}

===Archaeological and paleontological research===
In 1922, the British had been awarded [[German East Africa]] as part of the settlement of World War I. Within the [[Tanganyika Territory]] the Germans had discovered a site rich in [[dinosaur]] fossils, [[Tendaguru]]. Louis was told by [[Charles William Hobley|C. W. Hobley]], a friend of the family, that the [[British Museum of Natural History]] was going to send a fossil-hunting expedition led by William E. Cutler to the site. Louis applied and was hired to locate the site and manage the administrative details.<ref>''New Perspectives on Horned Dinosaurs: The Royal Tyrrell Museum Ceratopsian Symposium'' editors Michael J. Ryan, Brenda J. Chinnery-Allgeier, David A. Eberth. Indiana University Press 2010. Chapter 35 "Lost in plain sight: Rediscovery of William E. Cutler's lost Eoceratops" by [[Darren Tanke]] of the [[Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology]]</ref> In 1924 they departed for Africa. They never found a complete dinosaur skeleton, and Louis was recalled from the site by Cambridge in 1925.

Louis switched his focus to anthropology, and found a new mentor in [[Alfred Cort Haddon]], head of the Cambridge department. In 1926, Louis graduated with a "[[double first]]", or high honours, in anthropology and archaeology. He had used some of his preexisting qualifications; for example, Kikuyu was offered and accepted as the second [[modern language]] in which he was required to be proficient, even though no one there could test him on it. The university accepted an affidavit from a Kikuyu chief signed with a thumbprint.

From 1925 on Louis lectured and wrote on African archaeological and palaeontological topics. On graduation he was such a respected figure that Cambridge sent him to East Africa to study prehistoric African humans. He excavated dozens of sites, undertaking for the first time a systematic study of the artifacts. Some of his names for archaeological cultures are still in use; for example, the [[Elmenteitan]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Robertshaw|first1=Peter|title=The elmenteitan: An early food-producing culture in East Africa|journal=World Archaeology|date=1988|volume=20|issue=1|pages=57–69|doi=10.1080/00438243.1988.9980056}}</ref>

===Research Fellow===
[[File:StJohnsCambNewCourt.jpg|thumb|left|St. John's College, Cambridge.]]
In 1927, Louis received a visit at a site called Gamble's Cave, near [[Lake Elmenteita]], by two women on a holiday, one of whom was Frida Avern (1902–1993). Avern had done some coursework in archaeology. Louis and Frida began a relationship, which continued upon his return to Cambridge. In 1928, they married and continued work near Lake Elmenteita. Finds from Gamble's Cave were donated by Leakey to the [[British Museum]] in 1931.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx?place=52437&plaA=52437-3-1|title=Collection search: You searched for|access-date=14 March 2017}}</ref> At that time he discovered the [[Acheulean]] site of [[Kariandusi Prehistoric Site|Kariandusi]], which he excavated in 1928.

On the strength of his work there, he obtained a post-graduate research fellowship at [[St John's College, Cambridge|St. John's College]] and returned to Cambridge in 1929 to classify and prepare the finds from Elmenteita. His patron and mentor at Cambridge were now [[Arthur Keith]]. While cleaning two skeletons he had found, he noticed a similarity to one found in [[Olduvai Gorge]] by Professor [[Hans Reck]], a German national, whom Louis had met in 1925 in Germany while on business for Keith.
[[File:Olduvai-Schlucht Mike Krüger 110126 1.jpg|thumb|right|Olduvai Gorge 2011.]]
The geology of Olduvai was known. In 1913, Reck had extricated a skeleton from Bed II in the gorge wall. He argued that it must have the date of the bed, which was believed to be 600,000 years, in the mid-[[Pleistocene]]. Early dates for human evolution were not widely accepted by the general public at the time. Reck became involved in a media uproar. He was barred from going back to settle the question by the war and then the terms of the transfer of Tanganyika from Germany to Britain.<ref>For an account of the incident refer to ''[http://www.calarts.edu/~shockley/oh1.html Hans Reck and the Discovery of O.H.1] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070203012539/http://www.calarts.edu/~shockley/oh1.html |date=3 February 2007 }}'' at the "Always Something New" site.</ref> In 1929, Louis visited Berlin to talk to the now skeptical Reck. Noting an [[Acheulean]] tool in Reck's collection of artifacts from Olduvai, he bet Reck he could find ancient stone tools at Olduvai within 24 hours.<ref>The source for this subsection is Morell, Chapter 3, "Laying Claim to the Earliest Man".</ref>

Louis received his PhD in 1930 at the age of 27. His first child, a daughter named Priscilla Muthoni Leakey, was born in 1931. His headaches and epilepsy returned, and he was prescribed [[Phenobarbital|Luminal]], which he took for the rest of his life.