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 closely associated with her "constant partner" 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.

Rintoul lived in Largo all her life, owning a house next door to Baxter.

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 1910, Rintoul and Baxter took over editorship of the annual "Report on Scottish Ornithology", for The Annals of Scottish Natural History. The bird skins donated included the "first records of some species in the Firth of Forth, as well as the first Pied Wheatear found in Britain and the first Common Nightingale and Melodious Warbler in 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)