W. Baldwin Spencer

Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer
Walter Baldwin Spencer
Born	23 June 1860 Stretford, Lancashire
Died	14 July 1929(1929-07-14) (aged 69) Hoste Island, Chile
Nationality	British
Fields	anthropologist
Notable awards	Clarke Medal (1923)

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Baldwin stamp

Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer KCMG (23 June 1860 – 14 July 1929), commonly referred to as W. Baldwin Spencer or Baldwin Spencer, was an English-Australian biologist and anthropologist.

Baldwin was born in Stretford, Lancashire. His father, Reuben Spencer, who had come from Derbyshire in his youth, obtained a position with Rylands and Sons, cotton manufacturers, and rose to be chairman of its board of directors when Rylands became a company. Baldwin was educated at Old Trafford school, and on leaving entered the Manchester School of Art. He stayed only one year but never forgot his training in drawing. After leaving the school of arts Spencer went to Owens College where Milnes Marshall guided him in his study of biology. He gained a scholarship at Exeter College, Oxford. Before going to Oxford he won the Dalton Prize for natural history.

Spencer began his studies at Oxford in 1881. In June 1884 he qualified for his BA degree, obtaining first-class honours in biology. In 1885 he became assistant to Professor Moseley and shortly afterwards had valuable experience helping him and Professor Tylor to remove the Lane-Fox Pitt-Rivers collection from South Kensington to Oxford. His association with these distinguished men in this task no doubt largely helped to develop his interest in anthropology and museum work. In January 1886 he obtained a fellowship at Lincoln College, Oxford. He had already contributed various papers to scientific journals, one of which, on the Pineal eye in lizards, had aroused much interest, and having applied for the professorship of biology at Melbourne in June 1886 was elected to that chair in January 1887. A few days later he was married to Mary Elizabeth Bowman and left for Australia where he arrived in March. He immediately set about organising his new school (the chair had just been founded) and succeeded in getting a grant of £8000 to begin building his lecture rooms and laboratories. He showed much capability as a lecturer and organiser, and also took a full part in the general activities of the university. His interests were not confined to his university duties; he took a leading part in the proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria, and the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, and did valuable work for those bodies.