Colin Leakey

Colin Louis Avern Leakey (13 December 1933, Cambridge, England – 29 January 2018, Lincoln, England) was a leading plant scientist in the United Kingdom, a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge and of the Institute of Biology, and a world authority on beans.

His paternal grandparents were Church of England missionaries in British East Africa; his father grew up amidst the Kikuyu people and spent almost all his life in what became Kenya.

Many of the Leakey family have made contributions to archaeology and anthropology.

After Gresham's School, Holt, Leakey served his national service in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, including a year on the staff of Lord Mountbatten who was then Commander in Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet.

Leakey then studied physiology, biochemistry, botany and the history and philosophy of science for a first degree in Natural Sciences at King's College, Cambridge.