Leonard Doncaster

English geneticist (1877–1920)

Leonard Doncaster

Doncaster in 1920

Born| 31 December 1877 (1877-12-31)

Sheffield, England

Died| 28 May 1920 (1920-05-29) (aged 42)
Alma mater| University of Cambridge
Known for| Discovery of sex linkage
Awards| Elected as Fellow of the Royal Society of London, 1915
Scientific career
Fields| Genetics, lepidopterology, animal breeding
Institutions| King's College, Birmingham University, University of Liverpool

Leonard Doncaster (31 December 1877 - 28 May 1920) was an English geneticist and a lecturer on zoology at both Birmingham University and the University of Liverpool whose research work was largely based on insects.[1][2][3]

## Early life

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Doncaster was born on 31 December 1877 in Abbeydale, Sheffield.[3] His father was Samuel Doncaster, an iron merchant, of Abbeydale, Sheffield, Yorkshire.[1]

## Career

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After education at Leighton Park School in Reading South England he studied at King's College, Cambridge, from 1896 onward. He was Scholar of natural sciences in 1898, and Walsingham Medallist in 1902. In June 1902 he was appointed assistant to the Superintendent of the Cambridge University Museum of Zoology,[4] From 1906-10 he was a Lecturer in Zoology at Birmingham University.[1]

He was an early Mendelian geneticist who discovered sex linkage, while writing up breeding experiment results of the Reverend G.H. Raynor on the magpie moth Abraxas grossulariata published in 1906.[5] He wrote a number of books on Mendelian genetics and on sex determination. His book Heredity in the Light of Recent Research (1910), is notable for explicitly dismissing Lamarckian inheritance.[6] In 1909 he returned to Cambridge University and acted as Superintendent of the Museum of Zoology from 1909 to 1914.[7] He became University Lecturer in Zoology in 1914 and won the Trail Medal of Linneaean Society in 1915.[1] In 1915, he was also elected to the Royal Society of London.

During the First World War he served as a bacteriologist to the First Eastern General Hospital, Cambridge, and later in the Friends' Ambulance Unit at Dunkirk, as he was a Quaker.[8]

After WWI he was Professor of Zoology at Liverpool University from 1919 until his death in 1920. He died at age 42 of sarcoma in Liverpool.[1] William Bateson wrote his obituary in Nature.[9]

## Publications

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* Heredity in the Light of Recent Research (1910)
* A review of Heredity and Memory by James Ward (1912)
* The Determination of Sex (1914)
* Some Scientific Difficulties in the Way of Religious Belief (1916)
* An Introduction to the Study of Cytology (1920)

## See also

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* Biography portal

* Sex linkage
* Reciprocal cross
* Sex-limited genes
* Parthenogenesis
* Sex-determination system
* Sexual selection in insects

## References

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1. ^ a b c d e "Doncaster, Leonard (DNCR896L)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
2. ^ "DONCASTER, Leonard". The International Who's Who in the World. 1912. p. 390.
3. ^ a b Entomological News. Entomological Section of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia & The American Entomological Society. November 1920. p. 240. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
4. ^ "University intelligence". The Times. No. 36787\. London. 6 June 1902. p. 11.
5. ^ Doncaster L., Raynor G.H. (1906). "Breeding experiments with Lepidoptera". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 1 (1–2): 125–133\. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.1906.tb08425.x.1–2&rft.pages=125-133&rft.date=1906&rft_id=info:doi/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1906.tb08425.x&rft.au=Doncaster+L.,+Raynor+G.H.&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Leonard+Doncaster" class="Z3988">
6. ^ Jones, Andrew F. (2011). Developmental Fairy Tales: Evolutionary Thinking and Modern Chinese Culture. Harvard University Press. p. 92. ISBN 978-0-674-04795-2
7. ^ "Cambridge University Museum of Zoology: Archives & Histories". Archived from the original on 2010-11-19. Retrieved 2013-03-22.
8. ^ Dictionary of Quaker Biography, Library of Society of Friends
9. ^ Bateson, W (10 June 1920). "Prof. L. Doncaster, F.R.S." Nature. 105 (2641): 461–462\. Bibcode:1920Natur.105..461B. doi:10.1038/105461a0.

## Some publications

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* Doncaster L., Raynor G.H. (1906). "Breeding experiments with Lepidoptera". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 1 (1–2): 125–133\. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.1906.tb08425.x.1–2&rft.pages=125-133&rft.date=1906&rft_id=info:doi/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1906.tb08425.x&rft.au=Doncaster+L.,+Raynor+G.H.&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Leonard+Doncaster" class="Z3988">

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